Michelle Obama’s Mother Was Worried About Her Daughter Marrying a Biracial Man

Long before Michelle Obama became First Lady, her mother had misgivings about her marrying a young man named Barack Obama–because he was biracial.

In a Chicago TV interview that aired during Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign–and newly resurrected by Michelle Obama biographer Peter Slevin in a book due out next month–Marion Robinson confessed to being “a little bit” wary about her future son-in-law being the product of a white mom and black dad.

But it could’ve been worse, according to Robinson.

“That didn’t concern me as much as had he been completely white,” Robinson laughed in the appearance on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight,” which was scarcely noticed at the time.

“I guess that I worry about races mixing because of the difficulty–not for, so much for prejudice or anything,” Robinson continued. “It’s just very hard.”

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While granting few interviews, Robinson has spent years doing everything from tucking the girls in at night to accompanying them on official trips to China and Africa.

More recently, she marched with the Obama family in Selma, Ala., to commemorate one of the bloodiest battles of the civil rights movement.

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