Who Called It That The Media Would Pick Up On Byrd's KKK past?

[dogday]

You were right, just saw on MSNBC, so they follow that story with the 3 civil rights workers that were killed. If that is not swaying the public opinion, I don't know what is.....

[theboss]

1. Well, Byrd is the one bringing it up

And saying that it was made up of the "best people" at the time and really wasn't all that anti-black is not a way to play it down, in my mind.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. When did he say that?

He's denounced it in no uncertain terms lately.

No, this isn't a citation fight -- I sincerely thought/think his Klan affiliation was brief and early (age 18?) and he repudiates it.

--p!

[theboss]

8. He just wrote a book about it

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8272822

The 770-page book is the latest in a long series of attempts by the 87-year-old Democratic patriarch to try to explain an event early in his life that threatens to define him nearly as much as his achievements in the Senate. In it, Byrd says he viewed the Klan as a useful platform from which to launch his political career. He described it essentially as a fraternal group of elites -- doctors, lawyers, clergy, judges and other "upstanding people" who at no time engaged in or preached violence against blacks, Jews or Catholics, who historically were targets of the Klan.

[theboss]

20. It wasn't exactly brief

He was in the Klan for at least two years and got at least 150 people to join it.

He's certainly repudiated his membership over the years.

He's voted progressively on race relations in recent years. But until the 70s, he was the very definition of a Southern Democrat.

Of course, I'm probably one of the few people here to have both a) voted for him and b) met him.

[ET Awful]

2. Yes, but I didn't see Senator Byrd's name on the list of those who voted

against the recent anti-lynching resolution/apology.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. This is old, dead news

Byrd was a member of the KKK at age 18 for a few weeks. When he got wise to it, he left in a hurry.

It's a dishonest story to promote it as if Byrd was a Grand Kelvinator (or whatever they call their Fearless Leaders). They could, and should, explore the Conservative Citizens' Committees, which were kover korporations for konservatives who wanted to hide their Clan affiliations. Trent Lott was a member for years; so, too, many other red-state members of the Legislative Branch.

--p!

[dogday]

4. This is because his Bio just came out and in it he states he regrets

what he did, but at least he admits it and is honest about it.

[hemp_not_war]

6. not quite

in the story he talks about how he rose to become leader of the KKK. Because he recruited 160+ people and did other things he got to be leader. He said right there was when he decided he could go into politics. Still at least he's not racist now, and fesses up

[dogday]

13. Byrd, in his new book, again confronts early ties to KKK

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8272822/

[theboss]

7. That's not true

It was more than a few weeks...and he was "Grand Cyclops" or some nonsense. By his own admission it was at least two years and probably longer:

Byrd's book offers a truncated description of his days with the Klan that does not completely square with contemporaneous newspaper accounts and letters that show he was involved with the Klan throughout much of the 1940s, and not merely for two or three years.

According to his book, Byrd wrote to Samuel Green, an Atlanta doctor and "Imperial Wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan, in late 1941 or early 1942, expressing interest in joining. Some time later, he received the letter from Baskin, the "Grand Dragon" of mid-Atlantic states, saying he would come to Byrd's home in Crab Orchard whenever Byrd had rounded up 150 recruits for the Klan.

When Baskin finally arrived, the group gathered at the home of C.M. "Clyde" Goodwin, a former local law enforcement official. When it came time to choose the "Exalted Cyclops," the top officer in the local Klan unit, Byrd won unanimously.

Byrd asserts that his Klan chapter never engaged in or preached violence, "nor did we conduct any parades or marches or other public demonstrations" -- other than one time delivering a wreath of flowers in the shape of a cross to the home of a member who had been killed in a pistol duel.

Byrd wrote that he continued as a "Kleagle" recruiting for the Klan until early 1943, when he and his family left Crab Orchard for a welding job in a Baltimore shipyard.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8272822/page/2/

[Dogmudgeon]

15. Wow. That's a lot more than I heard.

Then again, this was a couple years ago.

I still think Byrd is OK (these days) but I never knew he was a recruiter for the Klan.

Thanks for the up-to-date info, all.

--p!

[pocket]

17. He was local Kleagle for most of the 40s according to the WashPost

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105_pf.html

[TNOE]

9. Wasn't he a Dixiecrat then - basically a Repub?

Don't know for sure, but heard it.

[theboss]

11. He's always been conservative

He filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act, voted against Thurgood Marsall, and was a critic of Martin Luther King, Jr.

He has mellowed over the years though.

[rodeodance]

12. i think c-span hold a whole in segment to byrd and kkk yesterday was

a terrible thing to do.

[theboss]

14. Again, he's brought it up

He can't write a book where he discusses his KKK days and then expect everyone to ignore it.

I give him credit for having the guts to address it. Though, I think he appears to be somewhat full of shit on the matter.

[pocket]

24. unfortunately, no

he was still a Democrat. Dixiecrat's were a short-lived 3rd party, but they never had Byrd as a member.

[kentuck]

10. 60 years ago..

If you are a true Christian, you learn to forgive. If you are a fake Christian, you hang on to these types of sins and trespasses. At least, he was man enough to admit his mistakes. And they were long ago. What about the mistakes of yesterday and last week? I heard a black woman call into C-SPAN and explain it this very way and I agree with her.

[MojoXN]

16. In Byrd's defense...

I was quite racist when I was 13 or 14 and stupid. Mind you, there were no non-white people in my town, or school. I had never been around black people, Latinos, or Asians, and so the only opinions that I got on the subject were those of my racist neighbors. As I grew up, I realized just HOW stupid prejudices and stereotypes really were. Everyone does stupid things in their youth. Don't condemn him because he took it a little farther than most. Judge him by what he has done since then. I don't judge Bush because he used to do coke when he was younger, I judge him because he's a lying, treasonous bastard who is indirectly responsible for the death of countless innocents. I can tell you one thing with certainty; that Robert C. Byrd has done a hell of a lot for the people of West Virginia.

MojoXN

[RethugAssKicker]

18. FUCK BYRD... Everyone - Stop apologizing for him.

Democrat, republican , independent ,... whatever. If you were in the KKK fuck you... I will never minimize it. Are you so much for your party... that you can't see a piece of shit for what it is.


Plus just the other day, I saw him rambling on and on and quoting all kind of crap from the bible.... He's a lunatic, and I rather just see him go away.

[Township75]

21. Good Call - Trent Lott didn't get any apologies from me..

neither will Byrd.

I think he was older than 13 too when this happened. Didn't he say he used it as a tool for his early political career.

The KKK and its members can fuck off. If someone burns a cross on my lawn they will by bleeding to death beneath it when they get shot.

[Sparkle]

19. Well I for one don't trust Sen. Byrd.

He should convert to the republican party like the rest of the Klan.

[ThomWV]

22. I've Seen It Every Election For The Last 30 Years

I moved to this state about 30 years ago. Byrd's short flirtation with the Clan (at a time when it may well have been considered the largest non-political orginization in the US) has come up in every election I've seen here.

By the way, only a fool would think the "press" just stumbled over this. It was spoon fed to those assholed right from the White House. Bet on it.

[theboss]

23. It's in Byrd's new book

I don't see why everyone is offended that it's being talked about...again.

If Byrd brings it up, isn't it fair game?