Obama to Use Family Bible for Presidential Swearing In

When Barack Obama is sworn in as president during the private Sunday ceremony, he will bring some of his wife’s family history to that ritual, namely the Bible from wife Michelle's family — the Robinsons.

The Robinson Family Bible was a gift from the First Lady’s father to his mother. Fraser Robinson III gave it to LaVaughn Delores Robinson on Mother’s Day in 1958. She used the Bible regularly.

Omar McRoberts, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago who studies black religious life, said Obama’s use of the Robinson Bible gives the public a peek into the president.

"It’s a statement about his private identity, that is, his personal identity," McRoberts said. "As someone who identifies closely with his wife’s family’s African-American Christian heritage."

On Monday, Obama will be sworn in using two other Bibles: President Abraham Lincoln’s and Dr. Martin Luther King’s.