When was robert byrd in the kkk

After winning his seat in the House of Representatives for a second time in , the politician managed to enroll in night courses for law school, despite lacking a bachelor's degree. He was still attending school in , when he defeated the Republican incumbent, W. Chapman Rivercomb, for a spot in the U. In , after 10 years of classes, Byrd graduated cum laude with his Juris Doctor from American University. President Kennedy, the school's commencement speaker, handed Byrd his diploma.

After receiving his degree, Byrd started the Scholastic Recognition Award in , which awards the valedictorian at each West Virginia public and private high school with a savings bond.

His financial generosity didn't stop there; appointed a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee in , Byrd became known for using his coveted position as a way to garner additional funds for poverty-stricken West Virginia.

He delivered millions in federal aid to his state to build roads, schools and hospitals. The move made him very popular with his constituency, earning him the title "West Virginian of the 20th Century.

Byrd's early votes in Congress reflected his roots in Southern anti-Black, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic teachings. Byrd initially denounced civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He also voted against the Voting Rights Act, which protected the voting rights of American minorities, making a hour filibuster speech in an attempt to keep the legislation from passing. He later apologized for both these votes. After beating out incumbent senator Ted Kennedy for the position of Senate majority whip in , the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, Byrd's name was mentioned as a possible Supreme Court candidate.

His lack of law experience and his ties to the KKK, however, prevented his nomination. This didn't prevent him from winning re-election as the majority whip, then earning the title of Senate majority leader in Byrd also stayed busy as a musician, recording his own album of fiddle music, Mountain Fiddler , in This same year, he appeared on the television program Hee Haw to play fiddle.

He gave up playing in the s because of a tremor in his hands. Byrd would go on to become Senate minority leader in , after the Republicans took control in the elections. He returned to the role of majority leader in , until he stepped down from the post in He was then given the influential post of Appropriations Committee chairman. In , Byrd, who had by then written several award-winning volumes on Senate history, earned an honorary bachelor's degree from Marshall University.

Byrd was 77 years old at the time. During this time, Byrd began to change his political views to reflect more traditionally Democratic leanings, eventually became a leading backer of civil rights and a pro-choice supporter. He also became an outspoken detractor of President George W. Bush's policies after the terrorist attacks of September 11, On June 12, , Byrd made history by became the longest serving U.

Senator in the history of the United States. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time. Weeks ago, the president gave vague assurances about the timely withdrawal of our troops. He said, "We will stay as long as necessary to get the job done, and then we will leave. They are "doublespeak. The fact is that the administration has carefully avoided telling the American people when it expects our occupation of Iraq to conclude. So far, this administration has yet to even estimate how soon it will be able to hand Iraq over to the Iraqi people.

In short, it appears that we have no exit strategy. The word "quagmire" is starting to be used by the media. Clearly, many people are very worried about our situation in Iraq. The death toll keeps mounting. Last week, the president actually taunted those forces who are murdering our troops in the streets of Iraq. He dared the violent militants by saying "Bring 'em on.

Chest thumping should have no place in such a situation. This was the president who went to the trouble to put on a flight suit, land on an aircraft carrier, and, with great fanfare, tell the American public that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended. Now, the president is saying, "Bring 'em on. The president has backed away from earlier suggestions of a foreseeable end to U.

He warns of the return of tyranny if our troops begin returning home. Judging by the president's statements, our armed forces have become the thumb in the dike - the only obstacle that prevents the return of a repressive dictatorship in Iraq. How did it come to this? Members of Congress were told that our forces would be greeted as liberators. Iraqi citizens were supposed to eagerly embrace democracy and serve up Saddam Hussein on a silver platter the moment that they sipped from the cup of freedom.

We should have known that the burden of democratizing Iraq would be no easy task. The administration should have been more forthcoming about the difficulty of that task, about the time it would take to execute it, and about the cost to the taxpayer.

To be sure, the Defense Department is now scrambling to scrape up as many as 20, foreign troops to join our forces in occupying Iraq by the end of September. I applaud these efforts. But it would be folly to believe that a deployment of 10,, 20, or even 30, foreign troops would significantly reduce the dangers to the nearly hundreds of thousands of Americans who are now in Iraq.

The failure of this administration to adequately plan for post-war Iraq has become painfully evident. The deployment of experienced peacekeepers from our friends and allies would go a long way to relieving the strain on our troops. It is simply shocking that our Secretary of Defense would be unaware of any efforts by the administration to make a formal request to NATO and the U. The tragic failure of the administration's efforts to build international support before launching its impatient rush towards war against Iraq is now bearing its bitter, bitter fruit.

The difficulty in finding just 20, peacekeepers to patrol Iraq is evidence that White House efforts to assemble 49 nations into a "coalition of the willing" was merely an exercise in rhetoric, meant to cover the lack of significant military or financial contributions from dozens of nations, save for those of Britain, Australia and Poland.

Has the lack of a plan for post-war Iraq needlessly cost American lives? If we had not been so convinced that Iraqis would greet our armies with flowers and smiles, could we have better anticipated the chaos and lawlessness that broke out in the days after the war? If we had not been so cocksure about our ability to neatly decapitate the leadership of the Iraqi regime, could we have fashioned a better plan to deal with the collapse of civil order as our tanks rolled into Baghdad?

Perhaps this White House should have listened to the advice of many senior military leaders who foresaw the need for several hundred thousands troops to stabilize post-war Iraq. Perhaps it should have contemplated the consequences of a Saddam Hussein driven into hiding, but still potent and dangerous.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. The administration appears quite ready now to dedicate our military to a long-term occupation of Iraq. War-weary soldiers will continue to patrol the areas around Baghdad.

The citizen-soldiers of the National Guard and the Reserves will be kept from returning to their homes, their jobs and their families. Thousands of American families will continue to worry about the fate of their loved ones. And in spite of the heavy commitment that this administration has made to the most ambitious policy of nation-building in more than half a century, it appears to be on the verge of sending unknown numbers of U.

In my home state, there is a growing sense of disenchantment with these foreign adventures. Every day, more letters come to my office from West Virginians asking when their family members will be coming home.

They contain details about National Guard and Army Reserve units with unclear missions and open-ended deployments.

I have received word that some units are without mail service, others must wait weeks between phone calls home to their families. One unit had to ration water to just 20 ounces per day because of supply shortages. I suspect that other Senators are experiencing a similar phenomenon in the content of their mail from families of the Guard and Reserve. These part-time soldiers are proud to serve in our nation's military, but they know that they are also full-time members of their communities.

Our nation's reservists have important duties in their civilian lives, serving their cities and towns as police officers, businessmen, doctors, teachers and laborers. Members of the Guard and Reserves proudly joined to serve their country in times of crisis, not to be a permanent constabulary force in the Middle East. Our brave and professional fighting men and women are awesome on the battlefield, but they must not be expected to carry out the role of peacekeepers or nation-builders in an open-ended mission, whether it take place in Lebanon, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Liberia or Iraq.

Our American soldiers are not Iraqi bureaucrats. Our Armed Forces are trained to win wars, not run countries. Putting our men and women in such an untenable situation is a misuse of our military and a disservice to our military personnel. This administration should think hard about whether we have the manpower to sustain a large commitment of troops in Iraq for the long term.

Keeping tens or hundred of thousands of troops in Iraq for as many as 10 years may demand more troops than our voluntary armed forces can muster. This administration should think hard about whether we have the money to single-handedly pay for the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq. Americans have good cause to be proud of the men and women who unselfishly serve our country in uniform.

They have carried out their duty in Iraq admirably. But what is the next step? The last thing we want to do is repay the services our troops have given to our country by committing them indefinitely to a fuzzy reconstruction mission of uncertain duration. Iraq is fast becoming an urban guerilla shooting gallery with U.

Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the s but subsequently denounced the organization. He served in the Senate for 51 years and died in at age Much of the conversation has focused on systematic racism and police brutality against black people in the United States.

Byrd, a Democrat, brought billions of dollars to his home state as the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. His name is attached to dozens of buildings, roads, schools, scholarships and other public works projects in West Virginia. His accomplishments followed a childhood of poverty in West Virginia, and his success on the national stage came despite a complicated past on racial issues.