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at least we can mention public service
'''Robert Byrd''' (born 1917) is a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Senator from [[West Virginia]]. He is currently the oldest and longest-serving member of [[Congress]], [[President pro tempore]] of the US Senate, and is the longest-serving [[Senator]] in history, having been first elected in 1959.
'''Robert Byrd''' (born 1917) is a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Senator from [[West Virginia]]. He is currently the oldest and longest-serving member of [[Congress]], [[President pro tempore]] of the US Senate, and is the longest-serving [[Senator]] in history, having been first elected in 1959.
He is third in line to the [[President of the United States|Presidency]] behind [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Dick Cheney]] and [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker]] [[Nancy Pelosi]].
He is third in line to the [[President of the United States|Presidency]] behind [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Dick Cheney]] and [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker]] [[Nancy Pelosi]].
| url = http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-07.htm
| url = http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-07.htm
| accessdate = 2006-10-03 }}</ref> Despite an 83 day [[filibuster]] in the Senate, both parties in Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Act, and President Johnson signed the bill into law.<ref>http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm U.S. Senate, June 10, 1964: Civil Rights Filibuster Ended]</ref> He also opposed the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], but voted for the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968]]. In 2005, Byrd told the ''Washington Post'' that his membership in the [[Baptist]] church led to a change in his views. In the opinion of one reviewer, Byrd, along with other Southern and border state Democrats, came to realize that he would have to temper "his blatantly [[racial segregation|segregationist]] views" and move to the Democratic Party mainstream if he wanted to play a role nationally.<ref name="WP061905"/>
| accessdate = 2006-10-03 }}</ref> Despite an 83 day [[filibuster]] in the Senate, both parties in Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Act, and President Johnson signed the bill into law.<ref>http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm U.S. Senate, June 10, 1964: Civil Rights Filibuster Ended]</ref> He also opposed the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], but voted for the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968]]. In 2005, Byrd told the ''Washington Post'' that his membership in the [[Baptist]] church led to a change in his views. In the opinion of one reviewer, Byrd, along with other Southern and border state Democrats, came to realize that he would have to temper "his blatantly [[racial segregation|segregationist]] views" and move to the Democratic Party mainstream if he wanted to play a role nationally.<ref name="WP061905"/>
==Klan Affiliation==
During the 1940s, he was involved in the [[Ku Klux Klan]] where he reached the rank of [[Exalted Cyclops]], the leader of the local chapter of the organization.<ref>Pianin, Eric. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105_pf.html A Senator's Shame: Byrd, in His New Book, Again Confronts Early Ties to KKK]. Washington Post, 2005-06-19, pp. A01</ref> He repeatedly expressed his desire for the Klan to expand to its previous size and power, once remarking in a letter that "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 nation." <ref>King, Colbert I. [http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/commentary/works/king2.html Sen. Byrd: The view from Darrell's barbershop], Washington Post, March 2, 2002</ref>
Byrd commented on the 1945 controversy raging over the idea of racially integrating the military. In his book When ''Jim Crow Met John Bull'', Graham Smith referred to a letter written that year by Byrd, when he was 28 years old, to [[segregationist]] Senator [[Theodore Bilbo]] of [[Mississippi]], in which Byrd vowed never to fight:
:''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."''
He had earlier written Bilbo:
:''"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side"''
By the 1950s, he was no longer involved with the Ku Klux Klan. To this day, he acknowledges the poor choice he made, and like [[Strom Thurmon]], (who originally ran on a segregationist platform) says he regrets being involved with the group.
==References==
==References==