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Former president Bill Clinton defended Sen. Robert Byrd’s KKK activities as a young man.
The left has been busy pooh poohing Byrd’s ties to the KKK but those arguments are largely undone by the left leaning wikipedia with this entry.
West Virginia‘s Democratic United States Senator Robert C. Byrd was a recruiter for the Klan while in his 20s and 30s, rising to the title of Kleagle and Exalted Cyclops of his local chapter. After leaving the group, Byrd spoke in favor of the Klan during his early political career. Though he claimed to have left the organization in 1943, Byrd wrote a letter in 1946 to the group’s Imperial Wizard stating “The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia.” Byrd defended the Klan in his 1958 U.S. Senate campaign when he was 41 years old.[10]
Despite being the only Senator to vote against both African American U.S. Supreme Court nominees (liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas) and filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Byrd has since said joining the Klan was his “greatest mistake.” The NAACP gave him a 100% rating on their issues during the 108th Congress.[11] However, in a 2001 incident Byrd repeatedly used the phrase “white niggers” on a national television broadcast.[12]
Robert Byrd may have run from the KKK for political expediency but in the end he couldn’t hide from it.
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About the author
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.
3 Comments for Bill Clinton Glosses Over Byrd’s KKK Past
Byrd was undoubtedly one of a very large number of solid-south “Dixiecrats” back in the middle of the last century … so-called “conservatives” who were also typically “segregationists” … and who were originally often Democrats. However, when the Democratic Party began supporting integration and civil rights for black southerners in the late ’40s and ’50s … the vast majority of those Dixiecrats switched their allegiance to the Republican Party … where they have remained … forming the basic structure of the now solid-GOP southern “Red States”.
I think it is entirely possible that Byrd “changed his mind” about his beliefs in later years -and surely this has to be a possibility. We should not be stuck with every view we expressed as a teenager -but by the time we are (lets say) 25 I think that true change is getting more and more unlikely -and by 60 I doubt that it really happens.
I guess we have to judge the man by the totality of his work -and frankly I am not familiar enough with it to make a judgement.
But Bill Clinton is surely a good man to speak in Byrd’s defence -because he surely did a lot of back-pedalling in his day -and made a lot of pretty wretched personal decisions himself.
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” is probably operative here -I am certainly the furthest thing from lily-white -but this is a cautionary tale for prospective politicians everywhere -and “forgiveness” will not in the future be as easy to find as it was in Byrds day!
November’s elections will tell the tale!
Jock Williams Yogi 13
Bill “I am not a Liar” Clinton saying that Byrd was just a good ol’ boy from the hills of WV just trying to get elected,,does NOT say much for the really great people of that state. Byrd fought AGAINST blacks until the late 60′s. All PROFESSIONAL Politicians see the writing on the wall sooner or later,especially to get re-elected in states that are changing racially.
Isn’t that what ALL Democrats do to keep the power of their office???
Look at Specter in PA. That will backfire on him.
They ALL said Byrd was a saint,,,WHY???,,,he was a loyal Democrat.
When Thurmond died at 100,,they all called him racist names,,WHY?? He was a loyal Republican,,,but NEVER a KLANSMAN,,,& never Filibustered AGAINST
Civil Rights,,,but BYRD DID,,,go figure ,,,,,what HYPOCRITES