Politicians Turn To Historic Bibles As They Take Oath Of Office

Attorney General Loretta Lynch used a bible belonging to Frederick Douglass

ByABC News

June 17, 2015, 5:38 PM

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, second from left, next to President Barack Obama, participates in a formal investiture ceremony, June 17, 2015, at the Warner Theatre in Washington.
AP Photo

 -- As Attorney General Loretta Lynch was sworn in Wednesday, she took her oath of office with the help of a little piece of history.

Lynch was sworn in using a bible once belonging to abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The book was given to Douglass as a gift from members of the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C. just before he departed for Haiti in 1889 to serve as a U.S. minister resident and consul general.

On Wednesday, the more than 100-year-old bible gained more significance when it was used to swear in the first African-American woman to serve as attorney general.

This bible was gifted to former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1889 by the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan A.M.E. Church.

Like Lynch, many lawmakers and officials have turned to historic holy texts, including bibles, Torahs, Qurans, the constitution and the Bhagavad Gita, to help cement their place in history.

At his 2009 Inauguration, President Obama became the first president to be sworn in on the Lincoln Bible since President Abraham Lincoln himself. For his 2013 inauguration, the president doubled the historical significance and coupled the Lincoln Bible with the “traveling bible” Martin Luther King, Jr. used as a pastor and while he traveled across the country fighting for equal rights.

Curator Clark Evans displays the burgundy velvet, gilt-edged Lincoln Inaugural Bible at the Library of Congress, Dec. 23, 2008, in Washington.

Four presidents – Warren G. Harding, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush - have taken the oath of office with the bible George Washington used when he was inaugurated as the first president of the United States in 1789.

The Bible used by George Washington, when he took the oath of office as president of the United States, on April 30, 1789, is displayed in the National Archives, on Jan. 10, 2005 in Washington.

Many politicians turn to holy texts belonging to their family for generations. Vice President Joe Biden has used a bible that is 5 inches thick and has been in his family since 1893 each time he was sworn in as a U.S. senator and both times he was sworn in as vice president. His son Beau also used the bible for his swearing-in ceremony as attorney general of Delaware.

PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden places his hand on the Biden Family Bible as he takes the oath of office during his official swearing-in ceremony at the Naval Observatory on Jan. 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden places his hand on the Biden Family Bible as he takes the oath of office from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor during his official swearing-in ceremony at the Naval Observatory on Jan. 20, 2013 in Washington, DC.

But sometimes with age comes controversy, as is the case with a famous Texas bible. Governors in Texas, including George W. Bush and Rick Perry, have abided by a centuries-old tradition of taking the oath of office on a bible belonging to Sam Houston, two-time president of the Republic of Texas and a former state governor. But in recent years, researchers have questioned whether the 199-year-old bible actually belonged to the Texas legend.