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'KKK' Byrd's Spokesman Draws Blank on Lynching Role
NewsMax.com ^ | Jan. 10, 2003 | Carl Limbacher

Posted on 01/10/2003 12:55:48 PM PST by Carl/NewsMax

A spokesman for Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, told protesters this week that he wasn't sure whether his boss had helped lynch any African-Americans when the top Senate Democrat was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940's.

Members of the African-American Republican Leadership Council and the Washington, D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com staged the sit-in in Byrd's Hart Building Senate office on Tuesday, where Byrd's press secretary Tom Gavin fielded questions for about 20 minutes.

"We asked Gavin, does he know what Sen. Byrd did while he was in the Klan?" Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the FreeRepublic group, told NewsMax.

"He didn't know," Taylor recalled. "He said he hadn't talked to Byrd about it."

"We asked Gavin if he knew what the Klan was doing in West Virginia in the 1940s when Sen. Byrd was a member," added Taylor.

Byrd's spokesman pleaded ignorance again.

"Were they lynching black people?" came the next question. "Again, Gavin didn't know," Taylor said.

Then the protesters wanted to know, did Byrd's Klan chapter burn crosses on black peoples' lawns and run them out of town?

"He didn't know. He had no idea," came the response from the Byrd press aide.

When pressed on why Gavin didn't try to find out more about Byrd's Klan past in the wake of last month's Trent Lott fiasco, the spokesman said only that he had failed to do so and didn't explain why, according to Taylor.

"The main thing that shocked us was when Gavin said Sen. Byrd told him that the reason he joined the Klan back then was because of its strong anti-communist stance," he explained.

"We laughed," Taylor said, recalling the protesters' reaction. "That's pretty much the same excuse Trent Lott offered," he added, referring to the brouhaha last month that forced Republican Senate Majority Leader to resign his post for praising Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 Dixiecrat presidential bid.


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: byrd; freepers; lynching
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To: mountaineer
Granted the dems are using a double standard here. My point is this, trying to get Byrd booted is not going to even the score. It sounds like second grade children bickering on the playground.
61 posted on 01/10/2003 4:15:33 PM PST by Moosefart
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To: ServesURight
Please blunt your criticism until after the game this weekend. It might be a disraction to the rest of the team....fenway
62 posted on 01/10/2003 4:24:14 PM PST by fenway
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To: SJackson
One would certainly think that if ANY agency has records of Klan activity, it would HAVE to be the FBI! Either THEY have BYRD's records, or Hillary Clinton has them!
63 posted on 01/10/2003 5:07:03 PM PST by Enterprise
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To: Carl/NewsMax
Does anyone know if Al Gore Sr. ever attended a KKK meeting? The Klan was a powerful political organization in Tennesse back in his day.
64 posted on 01/10/2003 5:46:30 PM PST by Temple Owl
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To: Moosefart
My point is this, trying to get Byrd booted is not going to even the score.

That's not the point. Everybody knows Byrd won't get booted. The purpose here is to undermine the Dems' stolen credibility on matters of race. If this is repeated often enough, black voters will begin to realize that the party they are ostensibly beholden to is harboring a Klansman. They may not vote Republican, but some of them will get disgusted enough to stop supporting the Dems. This is a winning issue.

65 posted on 01/10/2003 6:20:12 PM PST by Physicist
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To: Carl/NewsMax; kristinn

KLEAGLES DOWN!!!


66 posted on 01/10/2003 6:21:24 PM PST by Physicist (And Eagles up...beat that Falcon!)
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To: kristinn
What a GREAT political cartoon!
67 posted on 01/10/2003 6:52:58 PM PST by Enterprise
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To: Physicist
The purpose here is to undermine the Dems' stolen credibility on matters of race. If this is repeated often enough, black voters will begin to realize that the party they are ostensibly beholden to is harboring a Klansman. They may not vote Republican, but some of them will get disgusted enough to stop supporting the Dems. This is a winning issue.

Thank you for your succinct reply. I had not looked at it from that perspective. You are correct and I stand corrected. :)


68 posted on 01/11/2003 6:24:11 AM PST by Moosefart
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To: Trueblackman
No my friend the freepers have it right you deserve the credit for asking the question, I just enjoyed seeing you put it to Tom Gavin.

Those questions were exactly the questions 60 Minutes would have asked had this been a Republican who was the only member in Congress with a KKK heritage.

Those questions were exactly the questions that should be asked regardless of party if you were the only member in Congress with a KKK heritage.

69 posted on 01/11/2003 8:04:55 AM PST by Doctor Raoul
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To: muir_redwoods
What documentation exists in the public record that demonstrates that Byrd ever left the Klan officially? Isn't it possible that he is still a member? How does one go about leaving a criminal organization "Officially"? Anybody know?

To join the KKK, Byrd sword an oath before God to uphold the KKK Constitution. Among other things that Constitution says that each member swears:

"To maintain forever white supremacy."
"To maintain forever the God-given supremacy of the white race."

And...

Every Klansman has unqualifiedly affirmed that he will "faithfully strive for the eternal maintenance of white supremacy."

In my brief research on this topic, and having viewed various versions of past KKK Constitutions, I see no provision for leaving the Klan once sworn unless expelled. Until Byrd can demonstrate otherwise, he is still a member of the West Virgina KKK and is still under oath of allegiance to the Klan.

...Like that will matter at all to the Rats.

70 posted on 01/11/2003 11:59:11 AM PST by Spiff
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To: Spiff
Like that will matter at all to the Rats.

The consitution of the UNited States of America grants freedom of the press to allow Democrats to forget politically damaging facts.

71 posted on 01/11/2003 12:08:54 PM PST by alrea
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To: Carl/NewsMax
No response necessary, but let me try to encapsulate the line of questioning ABCNBCCBSCNN should be directing to Mr. Kleagle:

1. Mr Byrd, if it is true that you were a recruiter for the KKK, would you please tell us how many people you recruited, and their names?
2. Did you ever provide law enforcement authorities with these names?
3. Did you ever participate in the burning of crosses as a member of the KKK? If so, could name the places, dates and times?
4. If you ever did participate in the burning of crosses, did you at some point advice law enforcement of the events and who else was present?
5. As a member of the KKK, did you ever participate in the lynchings of any blacks?
6. If you did participate in the lynchings of any blacks, have you by now advised the proper law enforcement authorities?
7. During the time you were a member of the KKK, did you ever hear of other lynchings by KKK members? If so, do you have the names of those involved, the dates, times, and places of said lynchings? And one further question if I may, if you have heard of other members of the KKK who participated in lynchings, did you ever advise the proper law enforcement authorities of said lynchings?
8. Sorry Mr Byrd, one more question: To how many politicians, present and past, have you been a mentor? And would please provide their names?

72 posted on 01/11/2003 5:10:51 PM PST by Enterprise
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To: LibWhacker
Byrd said that he joined the Klan for "excitement". Back in those days, the most "exciting" form of family entertainment was lynching. Orchestrated by the Klan, notices would be placed in area newspapers advising the public of the time and place of the planned lynching. On the day of the event, the victim, who had been accused of a crime against a white person, would be taken from the jail, usually with the cooperation of law enforcement personnel, who were usually Klan members themselves. The crowds are spectators were huge, often numbering in the thousands. The victim was then tied to a tree or a post and subjected to a cruel free-for-all of whatever brutality that any spectator might wish to inflict. The victim would be subjected to the common practice of spectators walking up and taking "souvenirs". That is, they would cut off a finger or toe as a memento of the occasion, leaving other spectators to come up individually and take the rest. Ears were also taken in this manner. Another common practice was known as "surgery below the belt" during which other souvenirs were taken. Cries and pleas for mercy by victims were ignored, while families enjoyed picnic lunches with their children, who were routinely taken to these horrible spectacles. The torture usually lasted for several hours, after which the victim was usually burned alive or killed in some other manner, usually in attempt to inflict maximum suffering. During the course of the event, photographers would be busy photographing perpetrators and spectators alongside the victim. These photos were often turned into souvenir postcards, mailed to family and friends.

THIS is the Klan that Bob Byrd joined. It was not the Boy Scouts (which these days gets treated worse than the Klan by liberals).

I submit that it is naive to believe that Byrd could be a member of the Klan and be innocent and ignorant of what was going on. He needs to be held accountable!

For those who are unaware of lynching, I recommend the book "Without Sanctuary" by James Allen. It has graphic photos of actual lynchings, but it's a real eye-opener and offers undisputed truth of what lynchings actually were.
73 posted on 01/12/2003 10:21:25 AM PST by wontbackdown
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To: wontbackdown

Found the pictures from "Without Sanctuary" right here.

Lots of lynchings there. Looking through them, so far I have yet to see a single white hood or sheet.

74 posted on 01/12/2003 8:09:43 PM PST by Spiff
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To: plain talk
But he swears that he thought they were all Communists! What a maroon; he's got to go.
75 posted on 01/12/2003 8:12:17 PM PST by maro
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To: Spiff
Lots of lynchings there. Looking through them, so far I have yet to see a single white hood or sheet.

Hoods and sheets were not necessary because no one was afraid of being identified. There was never any retaliation or justice served for lynchings - law enforcement was usually in on it and most of the time blacks packed up and moved away from the area in large numbers out of fear for their lives. Ironically, when blacks moved away the economy suffered. There are previously thriving towns that are now ghost towns because a lynching took place there!
76 posted on 01/13/2003 7:36:19 PM PST by wontbackdown
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To: Enterprise
No response necessary, but let me try to encapsulate the line of questioning ABCNBCCBSCNN should be directing to Mr. Kleagle:

1. Mr Byrd, if it is true that you were a recruiter for the KKK, would you please tell us how many people you recruited, and their names?

2. Did you ever provide law enforcement authorities with these names?

3. Did you ever participate in the burning of crosses as a member of the KKK? If so, could name the places, dates and times?

4. If you ever did participate in the burning of crosses, did you at some point advice law enforcement of the events and who else was present?

5. As a member of the KKK, did you ever participate in the lynchings of any blacks?

6. If you did participate in the lynchings of any blacks, have you by now advised the proper law enforcement authorities?

7. During the time you were a member of the KKK, did you ever hear of other lynchings by KKK members? If so, do you have the names of those involved, the dates, times, and places of said lynchings? And one further question if I may, if you have heard of other members of the KKK who participated in lynchings, did you ever advise the proper law enforcement authorities of said lynchings?

8. Sorry Mr Byrd, one more question: To how many politicians, present and past, have you been a mentor? And would please provide their names?

I have a feeling an Authority infinitely more powerful than Dan, Peter, Tom and their colleagues combined may lay these questions upon the ByrdMan. If so, Bobby'll have no place to hide.

foreverfree

77 posted on 01/13/2003 7:56:48 PM PST by foreverfree
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To: dfwgator

I'll bet you a stale donut that Britt Hume has something about this on this PM's "Grapevine" segment. Brit is pretty darn perceptive..........and I think he's a lurker....maybe even a poster!!


78 posted on 06/15/2005 11:28:21 AM PDT by soozla (Leaders KNOW the way, GO the way and SHOW the way.)
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To: soozla

Not sure how quick Fox jumped on this...the article and thread are a couple years old.


79 posted on 06/15/2005 11:31:48 AM PDT by TheOtherOne (I often sacrifice my spelling on the alter of speed.)
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To: Carl/NewsMax

I wonder if Kristinn of FreeRepublic.com has a video camera. He's such a talented reporter, (and bold activist), I would like to see him armed with the tools of the trade.


80 posted on 06/15/2005 11:33:56 AM PDT by YaYa123 (@Kristinn Fan Club.com)
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