DETROIT — Thousands of environmental activists, calling for the Democratic Party to embrace far-reaching plans to curb climate change and address social injustice, gathered for a hard-to-miss rally in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon, hours before the first of two presidential primary debates here.

The rally was organized by a coalition of progressive groups called Frontline Detroit, and included the Sunrise Movement, the climate advocacy group seeking to harness the political power of young people to push for the Green New Deal. That proposal, which sets out a broad vision for significantly reducing planet-warming pollution by 2030 while also guaranteeing millions of new jobs, has become a litmus test in the Democratic primary race.

Sunrise activists joined with several local liberal groups, chanting and singing as they marched from a central downtown park to the Fox Theater, the site of the debates.

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The rally’s organizers said their goal was to see more top-tier Democratic candidates put climate change at the forefront of their policy agendas. They also wanted to pressure the candidates to visit some of Detroit’s most marginalized communities, many of which have seen devastating effects from water contamination and air pollution.