Robert Byrd

**Robert Carlyle Byrd** (November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician who served as **U.S. Secretary of State** from **22/01/1997 - 20/01/2005**, and as **U.S. Secretary of the Treasury** from **23/01/1977 - 20/01/1981**. He also served as **U.S. Secretary of Education** from **26/01/1985 - 20/01/1989**. He was the Liberal Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 1972 U.S. Presidential Election, running with Presidential nominee Edmund Muskie. He was a **U.S. Senator from West Virginia** from **03/01/1959 - 21/07/1972**, and a **U.S. Representative from West Virginia's 6th congressional district** from **03/01/1953 - 03/01/1959**.

## Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)

* Official
* '88
* 2001

### Offices Held

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1977-1981, 1997-2005)
U.S. Secretary of State (1985-1989)

U.S. Senator from West Virginia (1959-1972)

U.S. Representative from West Virginia's 6th congressional district (1953-1959)

## Early & personal life

Byrd was born **Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.** in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. However, his mother died during the 1918 flu epidemic, and the children, along with their mother's wishes, were dispersed among relatives. Byrd's biological father's sister & her husband, Vlurma & Titus Byrd, took Sale, renaming him Robert Carlyle Byrd, and raising him in the rural coal-mining regions of south WV, living primarily in Stotesbury. Byrd was the valedictorian of his 1934 graduating high school class.

He married Erma O. James, having 2 children with her. He also had 6 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.

### Membership in the KKK

**WARNING: This section includes racial slurs, insensitive language & mention of the Ku Klux Klan.**

Byrd recruited 150 of his friends to form a local chapter of the KKK, which attracted the attention of the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Joel L. Baskin, who told Byrd: *"You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation."* Byrd later recalled: *"Suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."*

In December 1944, Byrd wrote to Mississippi's senior U.S. Senator, Theodore Bilbo: *"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."*

In 1946, Byrd wrote to Samuel Green, Grand Wizard of the KKK: *"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."*

Byrd ran for the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1947, on the advice of the Grand Dragon, but started to lose interest in the Klan around 1948, eventually withdrawing from the group soon after.

Byrd later called joining the KKK *"the greatest mistake I ever made."* In 1997, he told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics but also warned: *"Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. **Don't get that albatross around your neck.** Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena."*

In his last autobiography, Byrd explained that he joined the KKK because he *"was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision, a jejune and immature outlook, seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."* Byrd later said in 2005: *"I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I've apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."*

## Congressional service

### U.S. House of Representatives

Byrd was elected to the U.S. House in 1952, and was re-elected twice.