President-elect Barack Obama’s apparent choice for U.S. attorney general has ties to Alabama.

Eric Holder Jr.’s sister-in-law was Vivian Malone Jones, one of the first two black students to integrate the University of Alabama in 1963. Jones, who died in 2005, was the older sister of Holder’s wife, Sharon Malone of Mobile, a Washington, D.C., doctor.

If nominated, Holder would require Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Mobile who is a Judiciary Committee member, backed Holder for the deputy AG job under President Clinton. The Birmingham News reports that Sessions says Holder has the potential to get Republican support for attorney general. He would be the first black to lead the Justice Department.