martin luther king jr. He carried a black leather King James Bible on his travels as a young pastor that began in Montgomery, Alabama. he turned to this “traveling bible” for inspiration, his family says, as he fought for freedom and equality.
president obama will lay his hand on the king’s well-worn bible at his public oath of office in the united states. Capitol in January. 21, the holiday that celebrates the birthday of the slain civil rights leader. The King’s Bible will be stacked with the gold and burgundy velvet Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration.
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obama chose the lincoln bible for his inauguration in 2009, making him the first president to do so since it was first used in 1861. president harry s. Truman also used two Bibles, as did Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. nixon.
The announcement about the bibles, which will be made public on Thursday, is part of the slow unfolding of the inaugural details that fascinates lovers of the American ceremony.
Presidential inaugurations have become more ritualized, and such decisions are especially important now at a time when the White House is aware that Americans are struggling to unite.
king’s family said in a statement that he would be “deeply moved” to see obama use the traveling bible on martin luther king jr. day, “and we hope that he can be a source of strength for the president when he begins his second term.”
“with less than two weeks to go until we open, we join americans across the country in taking this opportunity to celebrate how far we have come, honoring the legacy of martin luther king jr. through service, and rededicate ourselves to the work ahead of us,” the statement added.
According to the presidential inaugural committee, which organizes the swearing-in ceremony, the king traveled with several books, including this bible. “was used for inspiration and preparation of sermons and speeches, even during dr. King’s time as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church” in Montgomery, the committee said in a statement.
obama and vice president biden will be sworn in privately on sunday january 1st. 20 – the date required by the constitution. for that first ceremony, obama will use the family bible of his wife’s family. According to the inaugural committee, that bible “was a gift from the father of the first lady, fraser robinson iii, to her mother, lavaughn delores robinson, on her mother’s day in 1958. mrs. Robinson was the first African-American female manager of a Moody Bible Institute bookstore. That bible was the only one Michelle Obama’s grandmother used after that, a committee statement said.
For both the private and public ceremonies on Monday, Biden will be sworn in with a bible that has been in his family since 1893: a five-inch-thick volume with a Celtic cross on the cover. she also used it for his swearing in as a member of the us. uu. senator and in 2009 as vice president.
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some aspects of the opening ceremony have changed slightly over the decades. the fact that official prayers were offered dates only to the 1930s, historians say. But presidents have used bibles to take the oath since George Washington, even though the constitution doesn’t require it. The Constitution also doesn’t require the phrase “so help me God” at the end, but that has become standard, said Donald Ritchie, the United States historian. Senate.
He also noted that the image of the president’s wife holding the bible dates only to lady bird johnson doing so in 1965.
Chief Justices of the Supreme Court now traditionally take the oath, but Ritchie said any federal official can.
Several non-Christian members of Congress have recently used other scriptures, including rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, in 2007. The Minnesota Democrat used a Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson.
obama deviated from tradition in a key aspect of the ceremony: he invited myrlie evers-williams, widow of slain civil rights figure medgar evers, to deliver the prayer of invocation. it will be the first time that a woman, and a laywoman rather than a clergyman, has done so.
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