Sen. Robert Byrd(D),ex-Klansman

Jewish World Review ^ | Michelle Malkin

[Kay Soze]

Archived article from last year for redistribution

Sen. Robert Byrd, ex-Klansman

jewishworldreview.com -- EX-KLANSMAN Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, casually used the phrase "white nigger" twice on national TV this weekend. Enraged civil rights groups organized a protest campaign against Sen. Byrd and demanded that he undergo sensitivity training ... not. The ex-Klansman, you see, is a Democrat. Democrats can join hate groups and utter the ugliest racial slurs and get away with it because they are Democrats. They belong to the party of racial tolerance and understanding. They're paragons of virtue, and the rest of us are bigoted rubes.

The ex-Klansman showed his true colors when asked by Fox News Sunday morning talk show host Tony Snow about the state of race relations in America. Sen. Byrd warned: "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

The ex-Klansman, famed for Beltway blowhardism, should have quit talking a lot sooner. Why any prominent politician in his right mind would publicly and deliberately use the poisonous epithet "nigger" -- which most daily newspapers refuse to spell out, no matter the context -- is beyond comprehension. It's an open question as to whether the rant-prone, 83-year-old Byrd is even in his right mind, but senility doesn't excuse bigotry.

This ex-Klansman wasn't just a passive member of the nation's most notorious hate group. According to news accounts and biographical information, Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values." Nothing like the thrill of gathering 'round a midnight bonfire, roasting s'mores, tying nooses, and promoting white supremacy with a bunch of your hooded friends.

The ex-Klansman allegedly ended his ties with the group in 1943. He may have stopped paying dues, but he continued to pay homage to the KKK. Republicans in West Virginia discovered a letter Sen. Byrd had written to the Imperial Wizard of the KKK three years after he says he abandoned the group. 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 Union."

The ex-Klansman later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of those "mean-spirited" Republicans -- for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. In fact, the ex-Klansman had the gall to accuse Justice Thomas of "injecting racism" into the Senate hearings. Meanwhile, author Graham Smith recently discovered another letter Sen. Byrd wrote after he quit the KKK, this time attacking desegregation of the armed forces.

The ex-Klansman vowed never to fight "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."

If this ex-Klansman were a conservative Republican, he would never hear the end of his sordid past. "Ex-Klansman who opposed civil rights and black justices" would appear in every reference to Sen. Byrd. And even the "ex-" would be in doubt. Maxine Waters and Ralph Neas and Julianne Malveaux and Al Sharpton and all the other left-wing bloodhounds who sniff racism in every crevice of American life would be barking up a storm over Sen. Byrd's latest fulminations. Instead, the attack dogs are busy decrying latent racial bigotry where it doesn't exist, while the real thing roams wild and free in their own political backyard.

[Kay Soze]

Media coverage of the honest introspection within the Republican party has been quite good.

It has displayed the honesty and integrity of the GOP.

The media such as NPR,CNN,ABC,NYTimes however has repeatedly and consistently failed to further the black cause by completely ignoring the lack of introspection within one half of this nations political arena- the democratic party.

The silence of media such as NPR,CNN,ABC,NYTimes to point out consistent racist attitudes in the Democratic party is as much a "code" as those used by the segregationists who couch there attitudes and beliefs in words like Tradition, Lifestyle and States Rights

[Made In The USA]

Thanks for posting this required reading. I wasn't aware of Mr. Byrd's racism with regard to the Supreme Court Justices, or his fillibustering against civil rights legislation.

[donozark]

Good article. Had not read the part about his views of Blacks in the military. Wow! If THAT doesn't upset the apple cart, nothing will!!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I wasn't aware of Mr. Byrd's racism with regard to the Supreme Court Justices, or his fillibustering against civil rights legislation.

You are now.

[laotzu]

"honest introspection within the Republican party"

There is no need for introspection, as the Republican party has done nothing shameful(regarding this topic). The outrage expressed by Dem.s, and their fervent lackys is hollow.

The Dem.s have no honest concerns about blacks or racism, except as vehicles to run over Repub.s with. Thier behavior is hypocritical and calculated only for political advantage.

Republicans have too easily, and stupidly, been sucked into treating this outrage as legitimate. They should not compound the problem by childishly adopting the same dishonest strategy against the Dem.s .

[Digger]

When you are dealing with the commies there isn't logic involved. Therefore you play the childish game. Expose them each & every interview & have news conferences making these points. Make the newspeople accountable. This can be done if the pubbies were not so spineless. Get in the gutter & destroy them. Problem is that they are NOT organized as commies. They are a bunch of me-me's as Lott is.

[scooby321]

The Dem's New Spin is that the Southern Racist Democrats are Now GOP

Wallace Hollings Byrd Tallamadge Gore Sr are either still democrats are died as Democrats

[rhombus]

This is another DemonRat effort to gain control by other means because they couldn't do it or steal it at the ballot box. Too bad Lott isn't smart enough to keep his trap shut and avoid such traps.

[elhombrelibre]

For this author, you are required to post her picture. It's a Freeper rule.

[Mr_Magoo]

For every Republican attacked, we should attack 2 rats.

They go after Lott, we go after Bird and Hillary.

[pepsionice]

You can say alot about Trent Lott....but Robert Byrd is the most extreme racist in the Senate. Anybody that looks back at what he said, what he wrote, and what he did...would roll their eyes a bit. Byrd is stuck in the 1950s and has not moved forward in 50 years. If anyone needs to go because they are racist...Lott can go...but Byrd better be two steps behind him.

[GOPcapitalist]

Wallace Hollings Byrd Tallamadge Gore Sr are either still democrats are died as Democrats

Don't forget Bilbo, Faubus, Maddox, and Fulbright. Perhaps the worst of them is Hugo Black, a leading liberal Democrat senator from Alabama who pushed FDR's new deal through congress and, for his loyalty, was appointed by FDR to the US Supreme Court.

Like Byrd, Hugo Black was also a former Klan member. But whereas Byrd was a recruiter for the KKK, Black was much worse.

Black was literally a Klan attorney. He represented Klansmen who were under prosecution for hate murders. In fact that is how Black became famous in Alabama and later won his senate seat.

In 1921 a Klansman went into a Catholic church in Birmingham and murdered a priest in cold blood. He was brought up for prosecution and Klan lawyer Hugo Black signed on as his attorney. Black appealed to racial and religious hatred throughout the trial and even used his Klan connections to sway the jury. Reports of the trial note that at one point Black approached the jury, which included some Klan members, and flashed a series of Klan signals with the implication that they should acquit their fellow Klansman of the murder. They did and Black achieved his fame as the lawyer who got a fellow Klansman off the hook for a hate murder.

[aristeides]

The ex-Klansman vowed never to fight "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."

Interestingly, Byrd was not in the armed forces in WWII, and that was also precisely when he was in the Klan. On D-Day, Strom Thurmond, a 42-year-old who resigned his judgeship to volunteer for the Army, landed in Normandy, and Robert Byrd, 26 at the time, worked comfortably in a defense plant in West Virginia.l

[aristeides]

It was Hugo Black who convinced his fellow Supreme Court justices to adopt the First Amendment jurisprudence under which Catholic schools were denied public funding. Later, this was extended to end prayers in public schools. I believe this was inspired by Black's anti-Catholicism.

[StopDemocratsDotCom]

SING THE PETITION: BYRD MUST STEP ASIDE

[xJones]

SING THE PETITION: BYRD MUST STEP ASIDE

Oh sing, ye petition, Byrd must step by...:)

[hoosierpearl]

That is a good contrast between Thurmond and Byrd in WWII. Thanks for posting that.

The Republicans have never gotten credit for the good things they have done on civil rights issues. The party of Lincoln, of abolitionists who were fighting slavery long before the Civil War, plus the more modern history that no one chooses to remember. Robert Byrd at 26 was working stateside, while Thurmond and my father in law at 35 was in Normandy on D Day.

During the long years after the civil war, the segregationists were Democrats, not Republicans. Where is the honesty on the Dem side?

[Phantom Lord]

Little known, until recently when Chris Matthews let it slip on his show, Former House Speaker Tip O'Neil had a nickname for Byrd...

SHEETS!

Now what could he have been referring to?

[StopGlobalWhining]

Byrd's racist white n????? comments and KKK past membership have started getting more national attention. Let's rachet it up and get the message out to more people. The vast majority of people in the USA are unaware that Byrd is a former KKK member.

We are not even sure that he never participated in a cross burning or a lynching. He won't say.

Let's start calling into C-Span Washington Journal and expose the hypocrisy of Senator Byrd to a wider audience. I watch Fox Friends every morning on the Fox News Channel on our cable channel 28 in State College, PA, and when they go to commercial or have a boring segment, I click "channel down" on the remote to C-Span I on channel 27.

Some of the organized left seminar callers make my blood boil.

Let's start calling in and blasting Byrd for his thinly disguised racism, his racist KKK past, his "white N?????" slur, and his senility. Demand that Byrd apologize and resign.

Next, go after Hollings for raising the Confederate flag over the state capitol when he was governor, blast the so called "Reverend" Jackson for his hymietown reference to NYC, and call for a new investigation of Senator Kennedy's involvement in the death of poor Mary Jo. Was it really an accident? Was she pregnant at the time?

There is no statute of limitations on the crime of murder.

[NeoCaveman]

Michelle Malkin growl, or ping.