[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

[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?