In small brick churches one block apart on Martin Luther King Street in Selma, Ala., U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton paid tribute to activists who marched for civil rights here 42 years ago.

While commemorating the past, Obama and Clinton were in full presidential campaign mode in a Southern state where each hopes to win the Democratic nomination for president.

The Tuscaloosa News reports that throngs of excited listeners pulled their coats around them on the chilly day to hear the senators. Some sat in lawn chairs in the yards of their 1950s-era homes, adjacent to the churches where Obama and Clinton spoke.

Visitors peacefully filled the churches, lined the streets and marched in the early afternoon from Brown A.M.E. Church to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where, on March 7, 1965 - Black Sunday - more than 3,000 marchers seeking the right for blacks to vote were stopped and beaten by police.

At Brown A.M.E. Church, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (D-Birmingham), introduced Obama to diverse audiences, both inside and outside of the church, where the service was heard on loudspeakers.

Davis, who met Obama when both were at Harvard Law School, introduced him as the next president of the United States, an emotional statement met by raucous applause inside and outside.

Obama said he “stands on the shoulders of giants” in a debt to the progress made in civil rights. He said those activists who marched in Selma 42 years ago inspired his grandfather, a black cook with few rights living in Britain.

He said that, if elected president, he would emphasize the need to provide health care and insurance for the nearly 46 million people without, many of whom are black.

“We fought for civil rights, but we’ve got to fight for economic rights,” Obama said, noting that needs of the poor must be met.

He challenged parents to educate their children to strengthen what he described as an achievement debt.

“The civil rights movement was characterized by discipline and fortitude in the 1960s,” he said. “I can’t say for certain that we have that same sense of moral clarity in this generation. We’ve come a long way on this journey, but we have a long way to go.”

Both Obama and Clinton acknowledged Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), for his longtime dedication to civil rights. It was the young Lewis who led the March 42 years ago, and was again in Sunday’s march.

But Lewis went to church with Obama, the Montgomery Advertiser reports, as did the overwhelming majority of the crowd.

The smaller group huddled outside First Baptist Church, where Hillary Clinton spoke, grew smaller as the morning wore on.

Clinton said that the Voting Rights Act is as relevant now as it was during the civil rights movement, and she told the audience that she will promote the Count Every Vote Act as part of her platform.

She reminded voters that more than 25,000 activists marched in Montgomery in 1965 for blacks to be given broader voting rights.

“Our future matters,” Clinton said. “It is up to us to take it back.”

The senators met at the Brown A.M.E. Church shortly after 1 p.m. and walked to the bridge that spans the Alabama River. With a high school marching band leading the way, the senators paused at the top for a brief prayer before they crossed.

Nearly 200 people from Tuscaloosa delegations traveled to Selma to commemorate civil rights history and to support presidential hopefuls.

One group, AlObama United, met with Obama briefly before he spoke at Brown A.M.E., said the group’s coordinator Lukata Mjumbe.

Mjumbe said his group planned support strategies and that Alabama is an important state to Barack Obama’s nomination.

Ashley Clayton, a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Alabama, said she was pleased at the diversity of Obama’s supporters. She said many hope that having an earlier primary will be helpful.

Others came to remember the long struggle for civil rights.

The Rev. Clarence Sutton Sr., Tuscaloosa chapter president of the SCLC, organized a caravan of 125 adults and youth who attended the commemoration.

“It’s a time of reflection, to be aware that we don’t slide back into discrimination and bigotry. The kids are excited. Being here has made that history tangible to them,” Sutton said.

Was Hillary Clinton upstaged by her younger Senate counterpart?

Her appeal among blacks is largely due to the popularity of her husband, a man whom author Toni Morrison once famously callled the “first black president.”

Early yesterday, Hillary Clinton gave a speech before about 100 current and former public officials, ministers, lobbyists and party stalwarts at a private, invite-only breakfast in Montgomery, according to The Bulletin.

“She doesn’t sound like she’s from the South, and she doesn’t necessarily have that good ol’ gal persona. But she came across today as a very warm, compassionate person,” said Nancy Worley, a former secretary of state and prominent state party leader.

“You can’t turn somebody into a Southerner who didn’t grow up in the South like he (Bill Clinton) did. But she certainly did a good job showing her interest in people and her concern for people,” Worley said.

Former President Clinton was inducted into the Voting Rights Museum Hall of Fame after the march.