I brought that up in a debate with a progressive.
She told me that Byrd recanted and everything was ok.
She then went on to tell me that the repubs were racist because they accepted the dixiecrats into the party
23 known Dixiecrats. 20 or 21 went to the Democrat party. Only Thurmond and Helms went Republican.
All the racists democrats STAYED democrats (except Lester Maddox and one other guy who's name I've forgotten.) George Wallace (who stood in the school house door) became an Independent... Democrat racists just switched victims - using the same tactics they had used against blacks they used against conservatives in their 'remake'...
The Republican party in the South surged because people who had moved South from the North finally had a party they could vote in. For years if you moved South you had to sign up as a democrat or your vote was worthless. The 'primary' WAS the final vote. Whatever democrat won, would go on to win because Republicans didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning in the South. We were the 'carpetbaggers' among other names they called us.
Byrd with the help of democrats and the corrupt press 'erased' his past. Same with the rest of 'em from Hollings on up and down. LBJ was KKK? Most democrats were OR they ran interference for the ones that were in the KKK and white citizens council.