Michelle Obama honors Chicago grads, slain classmate Hadiya Pendleton

Michelle Obama honors Chicago grads, slain classmate Hadiya Pendleton



An empty chair in the third row, adorned with a lavender cloth, purple ribbon and fresh flowers, marked the spot where Hadiya Pendleton would have sat at her high school graduation Tuesday night.

The chair was one of the ways former classmates acknowledged the slain 15-year-old honors student at the commencement ceremony that was as much about closure for the past as looking toward the future.

Addressing the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. College Prep Class of 2015, first lady Michelle Obama told some 3,000 people who filled an auditorium at Chicago State University that Hadiya's memory has been an inspiration to her, President Barack Obama and to people across the country.

The selective enrollment school, where all of the 177 graduates have been accepted to college, won a competition to get the first lady as the commencement speaker. But Obama acknowledged that she welcomed the opportunity to honor Hadiya's memory and celebrate the achievements of her graduating class.



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