Obama reaches for King’s mantle

EPA	Road to the nomination Sen. Barack Obama becomes the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
	Cartoons: Obama MSNBC.com's editorial cartoonists weigh in on Obama's candidacy.
Polaris	Slide show: A call to serve Sen. Barack Obama answers the call to public service.

Make predictions on news events

Barack Obama will win the presidency

Slide show

Image: Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama

Race for the presidency
The trips, the speeches, and the moments of Decision ’08. A look at the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain.

more photos

But for the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist, at least, whether Obama could carry forward a movement for change in the way that King did was irrelevant. It was Obama's mere existence as a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination that was progress enough.

"We had to fight, bleed and die just to be able to vote,” said the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock. “Now we can select presidents, and now with credibility and intelligence and power we can run for president."

As Obama continues his fight for the Democratic nomination, it's that spirit of pride that Warnock expressed that the candidate hopes to tap into, urging black voters to take a chance on his candidacy and look past their own doubts about whether he can be elected.

Story continues below ↓

"I understand that many of you are still a little skeptical. You're not as skeptical as you were before Iowa.… Sometimes, ahh, I got to be careful here, sometimes it takes other folks before we believe in ourselves," he said at an NAACP banquet, commemorating Dr. King's birthday in Las Vegas on Friday night.

A test in South Carolina
The Democratic primary in South Carolina that will be held Saturday will be the first test of Obama's viability among black voters. He has a strong lead in the polls in South Carolina, but Clinton has vowed to fight just as hard for the black vote and will be dispatching her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who enjoys immense popularity among blacks, to campaign for her there.

But winning in the South could be key for an Obama victory, since states with large African-American populations like Georgia will be voting on or before Feb. 5 — “Super Tuesday” — and if he can make the case to African Americans that he is electable, it makes his reach for the Democratic nomination that much easier to grasp.

Obama ended his visit to King's church by laying a wreath of roses on King's memorial. He ended the service inside the church holding hands with three of the church's leaders, and swaying to the music, his head bowed, lips moving silently. It was a moving moment in an equally moving Sunday sermon, but a preacher in the church invoking Obama's name allowed a moment of irony to creep into the end of the service.

"If any of you felt Jesus in Senator Obama's speech, then come forward," he called out during the benediction. People stepped forward, but it was for Jesus rather than for the senator from Illinois.

Picking the president: The candidates
Click to visit that candidate’s msnbc.com page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed.

John McCain

Barack Obama