By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidates stood united Thursday night against the Supreme Court and its historic ruling rolling back a half-century of school desegregation laws. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said the conservative court “turned the clock back” on history.

Sen. Barack Obama, the only black candidate in the eight-person field, spoke of civil rights leaders who fought for Brown v. Board of Education and other precedents curbed by the high court. “If it were not for them,” he said, “I would not be standing here.”

The 90-minute debate was the third gathering of the Democratic hopefuls in a presidential campaign that has gotten off to an unusually early start. While the first two debates focused on their narrow differences on Iraq, moderator Tavis Smiley promised to steer the candidates to other issues that matter to black America, including health care, education, criminal justice, police accountability, housing and voting rights.

The debate was held at Howard University, a historically black college in the nation’s capital.

Black voters are a large and critical part of the Democratic primary electorate, making the debate a must-attend for candidates seeking the party’s presidential nomination. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Princeton University scholar Cornel West were among those in the audience.

Segregation was not the only issue. In turn, the candidates discussed their hopes to stem poverty, close the economic gap between rich and poor, fight AIDS and overhaul a judicial system that doesn’t always seem colorblind.

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