TEACHER SAYS KING WOULD BACK OBAMA

January 22, 2008 12:15 am

Shirley J. Cordell-Robinson spoke at the UMW Unity March.

A guest speaker at the University of Mary Washington said yesterday that she thinks Martin Luther King Jr. would support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's bid for president.

Shirley J. Cordell-Robinson, who spoke at UMW last year on King's birthday, recounted a possible conversation between King and the late Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress and the first to run for president.

"I know he's probably talking to Shirley Chisholm at this very moment," said Cordell-Robinson, a teacher at James Monroe High School.

She said Chisholm would likely support Sen. Hillary Clinton, and say: "Martin, look at what is happening. We knew that one day it had to come to this America might just be ready to place a woman at the helm of its leadership."

That's OK, Cordell-Robinson said King would say, "But I believe by the very same token God is grooming Barack Obama to become the voice of American leadership."

--Jeff Branscome