Robert Byrd and the KKK

            Robert Byrd, the longest serving member and President pro tem of the Senate, died today.  Over the next few days, Democrats and many Republicans will praise his long tenure, charming manner and service to West Virginia, but there was a less laudable side of the man.  As a young man, Byrd organized a local chapter of the West Virginia Ku Klux Klan. He rose through the ranks of the organization and, by his own admission, there realized his leadership ability and political ambition.

                   In the early 1940’s Byrd served s as a Kleagle, or recruiter, for the Klan.  He enlisted 150 members into a new chapter of the organization and after collecting the ten-dollar membership fee and $3 for their white robes and hood, the area Grand Dragon formally organized the chapter.  The official was so impressed with Robert Byrd that he encouraged the young man to go into politics.  According to Byrd the Klan leader said, “The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation.”  Byrd would eventually achieve the rank of Exalted Cyclops, the senior officer of his local chapter.      

            Byrd would later claim that he quickly became disinterested in the Klan and, after about a year, quit.  However, as late as 1946 he wrote, “The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation.”

          Beyond Klan membership, Robert Byrd has a record of discrimination.  In 1944, Byrd wrote, “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”  He filibustered and later voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibited discrimination against African Americans in education, voter registration and public services. Later, he was the only Senator to have voted against both black Supreme Court nominees, in 1967 against Thurgood Marshall, and then in 1991 against Clarence Thomas.   

          The mainstream liberal media will minimize or ignore these facts because on most issues, Byrd voted consistently liberal, but the facts remain.  History will decide on the achievements of the man, and God will weigh his heart, but if a conservative had the record outlined above, how do you think the mainstream media would report their death?