Just read the Wiki article on the man - fascinating and a leopard that really changed its spots from what he said in 1946
>>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.
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944
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To what he said half a century later
>>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."
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Mike