Changes

He had earlier written Bilbo:

He had earlier written Bilbo:

{{Cquote|I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side}}

{{Cquote|I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side}} Bilbo  told ''[[Meet the Press]]'' in a 1949 interview:

By the 1950s, he was no longer publicly involved with the Ku Klux Klan. In recent years Byrd has made public statements about poor choices he made, and like [[Strom Thurmond]], (who at one time ran on a segregationist platform) says he regrets being involved with the group. However, he was involved in a controversy in 2001 over his use of a racial epithet as part of a metaphor during an interview on race relations by [[Tony Snow]].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0</ref>

{{quote|No man can leave the Klan. He takes an oath not to do that. Once a Ku Klux, always a Ku Klux.<ref name="mdah.state.ms.us">[http://mdah.state.ms.us/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/bilbo.pdf Robert L. Fleegler, "Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, 1938–1947"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103063503/http://mdah.state.ms.us/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/bilbo.pdf |date=January 3, 2016 }}, ''The Journal of Mississippi History'', Spring 2006</ref>}}

 

In 2001 Byrd used a racial epithet in an interview on national television.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0</ref>

Alex Knepper commented, {{Quotebox|The moral of the story is that you can always make up for being a racist SOB. But the real subtext of the story is: being a Democrat means that you can promote segregation, join the KKK, vote against both black [[Supreme Court]] nominees, and use the word “n****r” on national television — and still be remembered as a promoter of [[black]] interests.<ref>http://frumforum.com/remembering-robert-byrds-racism</ref>}}

Alex Knepper commented, {{Quotebox|The moral of the story is that you can always make up for being a racist SOB. But the real subtext of the story is: being a Democrat means that you can promote segregation, join the KKK, vote against both black [[Supreme Court]] nominees, and use the word “n****r” on national television — and still be remembered as a promoter of [[black]] interests.<ref>http://frumforum.com/remembering-robert-byrds-racism</ref>}}