What was West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd's claim to fame?

Answer 1

Senator Robert Byrd, who passed away on June 28, 2010 at the age of 92, served in the United States Senate for a total of 51 years, 5 months, and 25 days, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

Byrd also had been accused of holding racist views. The Democrat from West Virginia joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) when he was 24, and in a 1944 letter to Senator Theodore Bilbo (Democrat from Mississippi), Byrd wrote:

"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side...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."

A few years later Byrd wrote in a letter to the KKK's Grand Wizard:

"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."

When Byrd first ran for political office in 1952, he claimed to no longer hold the views that he did in earlier years, although as late as 1997 in an interview he referred to his membership in the KKK as an "albatross" around his neck that inhibited his political career, and seemed more concerned about the effects his membership in the KKK had on his political career than repentant about the reasons for his joining in the first place.

Byrd not only opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segregation in schools, workplaces, and other public facilities, but he joined other Democrats in filibustering the legislation for 83 days. Byrd personally spent 14 hours as part of the filibuster, speaking against the legislation.

Byrd also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had disenfranchised African-American voters for years.