"It’s also true that Robert Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and helped establish the hate group’s chapter in Sophia, West Virginia. However, in 1952 Byrd avowed that “After about a year, I became disinterested [in the KKK], quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization,” and throughout his long political career (he served for 57 years in the United States Congress) he repeatedly apologized for his involvement with the KKK:
“I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times … and I don’t mind apologizing over and over again. I can’t erase what happened.”
In 2010, even the NAACP released a statement honoring Senator Byrd and mourning his passing:"
And the rest of the story....