Robert Byrd
ABOUT ROBERT BYRD
US Senator from West Virginia and member of the Democratic party who served his state in the Senate from 1959 to 2010. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1953 to 1959.
He was recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan during the 1940's but later left the group and publicly denounced racial intolerance.
He filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and he was the only senator to vote against both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court, the only two African-American nominees.
He had two children with his wife Erma Ora James.
He beat Ted Kennedy to become Senate Majority Whip in 1971.
