His youthful
indiscretions included a stint as an "Exalted Cyclops" of the Ku Klux Klan.
Three years after he alleged he quit the KKK he wrote to the Imperial Wizard
Quote:"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."
And he wrote in a 1945 letter that he would never fight in the armed forces:
Quote: "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."
Then in the finest hour of his Senatorial career:
Quote:Mr. Byrd allied himself with Richard B. Russell, the powerful Democratic senator from Georgia and architect of the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He joined Southern Democrats in opposition to the landmark legislation, which outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places and employment. Relying on licorice pellets and sips of milk for energy, Mr. Byrd filibustered for more than 14 hours in an effort to bury the legislation.
"Men are not created equal today, and they were not created equal in 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was written," Mr. Byrd proclaimed during the filibuster. "Men and races of men differ in appearance, ways, physical power, mental capacity, creativity and vision."
But then he was quite a harsh critic of W's war in Iraq, and he did redistribute a heck of a lot of money from the citizens of 49 other states to his own of West Virginia.
RIP Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062801241_pf.html
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