/----/ Apparently I know enough. It's far worse than having a holocaust denier over for ham sandwiches on the patio.
Robert Byrd and the Klan
Born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Nov. 20, 1917, Byrd's mother died when he was 1 year old. His father surrendered the child to his aunt and uncle, who subsequently adopted him.
Raised in a West Virginia coal mining community, the future senator often said that his childhood experiences helped shape his political beliefs.
While working as a butcher in the early 1940s, Byrd formed a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia.
In his 2005 book, Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields, Byrd recalled how his ability to quickly recruit 150 of his friends to the group impressed a top Klan official who told him, “You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation.”
Flattered by the official's observation, Byrd continued his leadership role in the Klan and was eventually elected Exalted Cyclops of the local group.
In a 1944 letter to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo, Byrd wrote,
As late as 1946, Byrd wrote to the Klan’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.”