Posted on 03/11/2005 8:11:53 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Former Ku Klux Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd said Thursday that he decided to leave the anti-black terrorist group in 1946 after becoming a born-again Christian, adding that the only reason he used the "N"-word in a 2001 television interview is because he'd heard black leaders say it.
Asked why he left the Klan, Byrd told Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, "My wife and I, we're born- again Christians . . . We were baptized in the Old Church Yard at Crab Orchard Baptist Church in 1946 . . . That changed my thinking in many ways."
"Time, reflection, and the teachings of the Bible" helped him cut his ties with the Klan, Byrd said - where he served as Grand Kleagle and was paid $10 a head to recruit like-minded racists who were willing to lynch blacks. Asked why - 55 years after he abandoned the hate-group - he used the "N"-word twice during an interview on "Fox News Sunday," the ex-Klansman explained:
"Well, I have heard many people use it. I have heard black leaders use it. I've heard white leaders use it."
Byrd told Colmes that the racist slur "meant nothing" to him, except to describe someone who was ignorant.
The West Virginia Democrat insisted that he'd always tried "to do the right thing."
But he didn't explain why he decided to lead the filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, or championed the renaming of the Senate's main office after Georgia Sen. Richard B. Russell, whose chief accomplishment was blocking the passage of anti-lynching legislation in the 1930's and 40's.
Instead Byrd insisted it was time to close the book on the earlier chapters of his life, saying, "I was wrong, as many young men are wrong today, even when they join groups. That's all in the past."
From: The Democrat Party's Long and Shameful History of Bigotry and Racism http://members.tripod.com/~gopcapitalist/democratrecord.html
..One of the earliest criticisms of Byrd's Klan ties came in 1952 when he was running for Congress. Byrd responded by claiming that he had left the Klan in 1943 while noting that "(d)uring the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan." Byrd was lying, however, as he engaged in correspondence with a Klan Imperial Wizard long after he claims to have ended his ties with the hate group.
In a letter to the Klan leadership (Source) dated 3 years after he purported to have ended his ties with them, Byrd wrote "I am a former kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County and the adjoining counties of the state. The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia." Byrd continued his racist diatribe "It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state of the Union" and followed with a request for assistance from the hate group's leadership in "rebuilding the Klan in the realm" of West Virginia.
Byrd's racism extends far beyond his Klan membership. In a letter he wrote on the subject of desegregating the armed forces, Byrd escalated his racist rhetoric to an appalling level. In the letter, Byrd vowed that he would never fight in an integrated armed services noting "(r)ather 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" (Source).
Byrd's racist opinions have shown their ugly face in his behavior in the Senate. Byrd led the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, according to the United States Senate's own website, filibustered the legislation to the bitter end appearing as one of the last opponents to the act before a coalition of civil rights proponents led by Republican Minority Leader Everett Dirksen invoked cloture so that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 could pass. At the time, Byrd was in the the midst of a 14 hour and 13 minute filibuster diatribe against the key civil rights measure (Source). Throughout the 1960's, Byrd was was one of the staunchest opponents to civil rights in the U.S. Senate.
"Everyone I knew was lynching n's. So I joined in."
"I wouldn't do it today. I don't see anyone putting on sheets around me. Today I fight for different causes, like reproductive rights. Black women should have the RIGHT to kill their babies in the womb. I stand for RIGHTS for black people."
LOL!
You nailed him!
Understood.
$10 a head ? $10 was a nice amount of money 30 years ago. And to hire lynchers ??? Well, we all know if it was any Republican they would be thrown out of government or in jail if the aclu could find anything .
I got tired of the Reublican's making me take off my hood and cloak when ever time I entered the Senate chambers.
How does one legally leave an on-going criminal enterprise? Isn't it likely that, as far as the Klan is concerned, he's still a member?
Which side do you think he would take on Hillary's bill to permit felons voting rights?
Whichever side would bring RK Byrd the greatest political advantage.
Let me do this differently. Why do you think ex-felons lose rights such as the ability to vote?
I never gave it much thought but as people who have demonstrated a tendency to the criminal maybe there is a societal interest in keeping them marginalized
| Robert C. Byrd Drive, from Beckley to Sophia (Byrd's hometown) | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Aerospace Technical Center | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Cancer Research Center | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Technology Center at Alderson-Broaddus College | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center, near Princeton | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Bridge between Huntington and Chesapeake, Ohio | ||
| Robert C. Byrd addition to the lodge at Oglebay Park, Wheeling | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Community Center, Pine Grove | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Expressway, U.S. 52 near Weirton | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Institute in Charleston | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center | ||
| Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Federal Building | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Library and Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center | ||
| Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center | ||
|
Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition to the veteran's hospital in Huntington |
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|
Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park, Hardy County |
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|
Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Award |
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| Robert C. Byrd Community Center in the naval station, Sugar Grove |
See my #96.
He didn't leave the Klan, the Klan left him.
Once on FR I made a joke about getting a divorce in WVA but still being brother and sister ~ some WVA yehaw took offense to that. Any state that keeps returning and honoring a klanner like 'sheets' deserves to be thought of as inbreeds!
He's "heard many people use it." What kind of people is he hanging around with, anyway? His old Klan buddies? What "white leaders" and "black leaders" did he hear using it, I wonder? If he really thinks that word is okay in today's society, he's not only racist, but senile.
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