"W-O-W! Was he really? If so, that would explain a lot."
http://www.answers.com/Robert%20C.%20Byrd
He, like many southerners of the time, participated in the KKK for a period of time during World War II, holding the titles "Kleagle", which indicated a Klan recruiter, and "Exalted Cyclops." Byrd did not serve in the military during the war, working instead as a welder in a Baltimore shipyard, assembling warships.
Is Byrd's goal just to protect the south, or is it to recruit new KKK people? Striking from the record, a few comments he has made, I've always thought him to be an incredibly smart man always looking out for the helpless.