Tonight’s debate among the Democratic presidential contenders, sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus and broadcast on CNN, will feature extended discussion of race as the leading candidates mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Yesterday, senators Clinton and Obama held firm to their agreed upon truce to tone down racial rhetoric, but both candidates worked to court black voters in advance of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina and upcoming primaries in New York, California, and Florida.

On the eve of the federal holiday, Mrs. Clinton was in Harlem picking up an endorsement from the Reverend Calvin Butts III, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. Mr. Obama was in Atlanta at King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, speaking out against black anti-Semitism, homophobia, and anti-immigrant sentiments.

In her comments to the predominantly black congregation, and later to the press, Mrs. Clinton was conciliatory.

“One does not have to vote against anyone,” Mrs. Clinton said, speaking outside the church to a group of reporters and onlookers. Mrs. Clinton, just blocks away from her husband’s post-White House office on 125th Street, spoke of her “deep and long lasting relationship with the African American community” and offered up some kind words to Mr. Obama, calling him an “extraordinary” human being with “enormous gifts.”

“I understand how difficult this choice is,” she said.

At the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King began his career as a minister and civil rights leader. Mr. Obama urged the African American community to acknowledge its own complicity in sowing division with its treatment of gays, Jews and immigrants.

“For most of this country’s history we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man’s inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system,” he said.

“And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community. We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity,” Mr. Obama said.

Today Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards will be in Columbia, S.C., participating in the Naacp’s King Day at the Dome Rally on the Statehouse steps. They will then head to Myrtle Beach for the Democratic debate.

Other than Governor Huckabee, who is set to attend the Martin Luther King Day services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, all the leading Republican candidates will not be attending any events that outwardly correspond to Martin Luther King Day. President Clinton, who has been campaigning on his wife’s behalf, is scheduled to speak at the Ebenezer Baptist Church ceremony.

President Bush plans to visit the King Memorial Library in Northwest Washington to mark the holiday. Senator McCain, coming off his victory in the South Carolina primary, will be campaigning in Florida, as will Mayor Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

The contest within the Democratic primary for black voters flared up recently when Mrs. Clinton suggested in a television interview that President Lyndon Johnson deserved more credit for passing the Civil Rights Act of 1968 than Mr. King. The Obama camp then criticized the remarks, setting off a series of sharp exchanges, which ended with last week’s truce.

But the passion among supporters of each candidate is very much alive.

At yesterday’s event in Harlem supporters of Mr. Obama showed up early with banners and placards and tried to drown out the speeches given by Rev. Butts and Ms. Clinton.

Rev. Butts during his endorsement speech said that calls for change “must also be accompanied by the experience and ability necessary to successfully and resourcefully accomplish it. Experience is not synonymous with status quo nor should it be vilified for the sake of campaign sound bites. With experience, comes the value of lessons learned,” he said.

An organizer for the “Harlem for Obama” organization, Chet Whye, said the Clintons had failed to effectively listen to the concerns of the everyday Harlem resident.

“She may have found her voice but she’s not listening to ours. They may have the support of Butts and Charlie Rangel but she is not listening to Harlem. It’s a one-way conversation with the Clintons and it needs to stop,” he said.

Following her speech made in frigid temperatures Mrs. Clinton entered into the crowd of onlookers holding a tray with a dozen cups of hot coffee. She then approached the Obama supporters offering up cups of coffee. Some accepted, while others refused.