NAALCP blacksplains Sheets Byrd's metamorphosis

[Delmar]

Sun Aug 28, 2016, 09:09 AM
Star Member louis c (5,095 posts)

NAACP Explains Robert Byrd's Transformation


A sickening response from many bigots is that "Hillary is a bigot, too". Donald Trump and many other racists like him, point to Hillary Clinton's embrace of Robert Byrd, who once was an organizer for the KKK. I like to point out that Byrd renounced that allegiance 40 years before his death and voted in the Senate as a progressive on race issues. he apologized "a thousand times, and will continue to apologize" for his involvement in that organization. He rejected, apologized and spent a life time atoning. That position is what Hillary and the Democratic Party embraced, certainly not his misspent youth in that hateful group. I like to use Pope Benedict as an example. Benedict was a Nazi soldier in 1945. that certainly didn't define him. When people change and spend their lives contrary to the cause that one got involved 80 years before their death, in Byrd's case, we take them at their word and judge them by their actions.

Here's what the NAACP says on the subject:


<snip>“Senator Byrd reflects the transformative power of this nation,” NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous was quoted at the time of his death in June 2010. “Senator Byrd went from being an active member of the KKK to being a stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and many other pieces of seminal legislation that advanced the civil rights and liberties of our country.”

Senator Robert Byrd, by all accounts, had shifted away from the group after becoming “disinterested” in 1952 and had completely rejected the Ku Klux Klan by the time of his death, on several occasions, as reported by Snopes.

“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.”<snip>

Link:
http://www.inquisitr.com/3458749/naacp-robert-byrd-clinton-kkk-mentor-reflects-the-transformative-power-of-this-nation/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028128677

Spent a lifetime atoning?  What a crock of shit.

Voted in the Senate as a progressive on race issues?  Thanks DUmmy, for offering up more evidence that he was a virulent racist.

Pope Benedict was yanked out of the seminary and drafted into service by the Nazis--not at all comparable to Byrd's enthusiastic work for the Klan.

Then the non partisan NAALCP that speaks on behalf of all black people in the land weighs in:

Stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act?

This was in the days when the South was a solid Democratic stronghold -- and when the default position of Southern Democrats was to advocate separation of the races. In 1964, Byrd joined other members of his party, led by Richard Russell of Georgia, in trying to kill the Civil Rights Act. Back then, would-be obstructionists were required to stage a filibuster rather than just threaten one. Byrd held the Senate floor for 14 hours in an effort that was ultimately as futile as Pickett's Charge.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062803119.html

Supporter of the Voting Rights Act?

Byrd also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and most of Johnson's anti-poverty programs, saying that "we can take the people out of the slums, but we cannot take the slums out of the people."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062803119.html

Claims he became disinterested in the Klan in 1952 which happens to be the same year he was elected to congress and his opponent in the race shed light on his Klan membership leadership.

Response to louis c (Original post)Sun Aug 28, 2016, 09:27 AM
Archae (37,212 posts)
2. Byrd should be slammed for what was real. Not this imaginary "support for the Klan."

Imaginary...right.

Response to louis c (Original post)Sun Aug 28, 2016, 09:57 AM
90-percent (5,900 posts)
4. Byrd is ok in my book.

He's ok in my book too, now that he's dead.

Response to babylonsister (Reply #5)Sun Aug 28, 2016, 12:18 PM
Star Member Hekate (37,376 posts)
19. Amen, Babsis. He achieved greatness.

Somebody pinch me:

Response to louis c (Original post)Sun Aug 28, 2016, 11:11 AM
Star Member Nye Bevan (25,250 posts)
14. "Misspent youth"? He was 24 when he joined the Klan and recruited 150 people into it.

And he was 27 when he wrote these words:

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.

[98ZJUSMC]

Supporter of the Voting Rights Act?

    Even the Romper Room retards debunked that bullshit already.

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Revisionist history.

[Carl]

They have not one moral constant in their evil hearts.

[SVPete]

Response to louis c (Original post)Sun Aug 28, 2016, 09:27 AM
Archae (37,212 posts)
2. Byrd should be slammed for what was real. Not this imaginary "support for the Klan."

Pope Benedict was yanked out of the seminary and drafted into service by the Nazis--not at all comparable to Byrd's enthusiastic work for the Klan.

A little more detail in support of your retort, as even Wikipedia - no rightwing source - acknowledges:

* Robert Byrd founded and organized his local Klan chapter;

* Robert Byrd was a "Kleagle", an official recruiter, a position that at least sometimes was a paid position, on a $-per-head basis;

* Robert Byrd was the "Exalted Cyclops", the leader of his local Klan chapter.

There was nothing "imaginary", opportunistic, or even half-hearted about Robert Byrd's support for the Klan. He didn't create his local Klan chapter as a stepping stone to or as de rigueur in the Democratic Solid South for political office, Robert Byrd was an all-in, true-believer, Klansman. How Byrd expressed his racism may have evolved, but it seems to have been intact into the mid-late 1960s.

In predictably hypocritical fashion, Libs & Progs invoked Strom Thurmond's opposition in the 1950s and 1960s to Civil Rights legislation to the day he died and do so to this day as evidence that Thurmond was a life-long racist, but ignore Byrd's opposition or concoct Alt-History claiming he supported it. The difference? Thurmond dropped the D after his name and replaced it with an R, while Byrd kept the Magic Golden D.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The NAACP would say or do anything to keep working in the house rather than going back to the fields.

[Carl]

The NAACP would say or do anything to keep themselves working in the house rather than going back to the fields with the rest of the black democrat population.

Amended to be a bit more pointed.

[Karin]

Among the many characteristics that I despise about liberals/leftists is their eagerness to defend the indefensible.  It's laughable and maddening at the same time. 

I can't stand Old Sheets, and I hate that he named every interstate crapper and anything else nailed down, after himself.  JHC.

[Movie buff- The Sequel]

They are bending themselves into pretzels to try and cover up the obscene, hateful legacy of that revolting fiend.
" who once was an organizer for the KKK."
Once was an organizer?
He was an Exalted Cyclops, an extremely high leadership position in the Klan's ranks.
The DUmmy makes it sound like maybe he planned a party for them on one occasion or something.
" In 1964, Byrd joined other members of his party, led by Richard Russell of Georgia, in trying to kill the Civil Rights Act. Back then, would-be obstructionists were required to stage a filibuster rather than just threaten one. Byrd held the Senate floor for 14 hours in an effort that was ultimately as futile as Pickett's Charge."
 Al Gore's daddy was a part of that particular filibuster effort, as well.