LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Robert Byrd: Ku Klux Klan
built 424 days ago
Colleagues said Byrd agreed to have Murray lead the floor fight, even though the Iraq issue is close to his heart. Since the war's outset, he has ranked among Bush's harshest critics, a role that endeared him to many liberals and proved again that a skillful politician can remake his image if he stays in office long enough. His political origins were certainly conservative, including a stint in the Ku Klux Klan - membership for which Byrd has repeatedly apologized. His 14-hour filibuster of civil rights legislation in 1964 was among the longest in Senate history.
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Controversially, Byrd was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He opposed the Voting Rights Act, but eventually voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He voted against Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas (the only African Americans as of yet, to be nominated) to the Supreme Court. Byrd ... opposed nomination of Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State. Many use these instances as evidence of Byrd's racism and poor race relations.
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[L]et the record reflect that Byrd is an anachronism. Not just in the quaint sense, like a corncob pipe or a grandpa who still says "fiddlesticks." And not just because he was once an Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan. Byrd is a throwback to -- and remains nostalgic for -- a bygone (and not usually lamented) political era.
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In 1942 24 year-old Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan, which he had seen holding parades in Matoaka, West Virginia, as a child. Byrd was unanimously elected to be the leader, known as the Exalted Cyclops, of his local chapter.[2]
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In 1942, 24-year-old Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose parades in Matoaka, West Virginia, he had witnessed in his childhood. He was unanimously elected Exalted Cyclops, or leader, of his local chapter.[4]
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Byrd is een ex KKK-lid. Robert Byrd heeft zich reeds ettelijke malen publiekelijk verontschuldigd voor zijn jeugdzonden en afstand genomen van de Klan. Hij betuigde zijn "diepste spijt" voor zijn rol als Grand Cyclops en Kleagle (een Klansman verantwoordelijk voor recrutering) bij de Ku Klux Klan, alsook voor zijn uitspraken uit 1958 - toen hij voor de eerste maal deelnam aan de senaatsverkiezingen - waarin hij de Klan verheerlijkte en alle beschuldigingen minimaliseerde of zelfs totaal ontkende.
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