Robert Byrd

Robert Byrd (2009)

Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr .; born November 20, 1917 in North Wilkesboro , Wilkes County , North Carolina ; † June 28, 2010 in Fairfax , Virginia ) was a Democratic US Senator for the state of West Virginia . In the Senate he was for many years pro tempore president and majority or minority leader of the Democrats and from 1989 to 2009 (with interruptions) chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee (investment committee).

Byrd began his political career temporarily in the Ku Klux Klan during World War II , but distanced himself from it since the 1950s and generally voted for legislative proposals that would benefit African Americans . He won his first political election to the House of Representatives of the state of West Virginia in 1946, subsequently won every public election and moved to the Senate there in 1951. Byrd took up his first political mandate at the federal level in the US House of Representatives in 1953 and sat in the US Senate without interruption from 1959 until his death. Byrd was considered a comparatively conservative Democrat who valued the interests of the Senate and those of his home state West Virginia more than those of the Democratic Party. On the Senate Investment Committee, he directed substantial federal funding to West Virginia regional projects, large numbers of which are named after him, and drew criticism as the "King of Investment".

After Strom Thurmond's death in June 2003, Byrd became the longest-serving US Senator to date and was also the longest-serving member of Congress (before Carl Hayden ). Institutional Byrd was well versed in the history of the United States Senate as well as ancient Rome.

Family and education

Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Carolina in 1917 . His mother died in the 1918 pandemic flu . According to their wishes, his father distributed the common children among different relatives. One year old Cornelius came to live with his aunt Vlurma Byrd and her husband Titus, who renamed him Robert Byrd. He grew up in a mining region in West Virginia; According to him, the foster parents conveyed to him the typical point of view of a white southerner in the time when the Reconstruction era was still in the memory of the people and racial segregation was considered an irrefutable fact in the southern states . Byrd described the social climate at the time in his autobiographical book Child of the Appalachian Coalfields (2005): “Blacks were generally distrusted by many whites, and I suspect they were subliminally feared.” (“Many whites generally distrusted blacks and I suspect they were unconsciously feared. ")

Byrd with his wife Erma and dog Trouble

Byrd was married to his high school sweetheart Erma Ora from 1937, who died on March 26, 2006. They had two daughters, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Byrd graduated from high school at the top of his class (Valedictorian) and then worked for twelve years to afford college education. He studied at Beckley College , Concord College , Morris Harvey College, and Marshall College , all of which are in West Virginia.

He worked in a gas station, as a salesman in a corner shop, as a welder in a shipyard and as a butcher.

Political career

In the Ku Klux Klan

As a child, Byrd witnessed parades by the Ku Klux Klan in Mataoaka , West Virginia, in which his father marched as a member. When Byrd was 23 or 24 years old, he joined the organization and was soon unanimously elected Exalted Cyclops (Local Leader) of Crab Orchard , West Virginia, at the suggestion of Grand Dragon (National Leader) Joel L. Baskin .

The Ku Klux Klan was still considered a career springboard for politicians from the southern states . Ambition is generally accepted as the motivation for his commitment, which Byrd confirms in his autobiography:

"I was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision - a jejune and immature outlook - seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."

"I had a severe bout of tunnel vision - an immature view - I only saw [in the Klan] what I wanted to see, and I thought it might help develop my talents and satisfy my ambitions."

- Robert C. Byrd : Child of the Appalachian Coalfields

Byrd did not serve in the military during World War II , but instead worked as a welder in a Baltimore shipyard building warships. Meanwhile he built up the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan by recruiting 150 people as "Kleagle". In November 1944 he wrote to the racist US Senator Theodore G. Bilbo from Mississippi: “I am a typical American, a southerner ... and I will never in the world be convinced that racial mixing is good in any area. ... I am loyal to my country ... but I will never fight under his banner with a Negro by my side. I will sooner die a thousand deaths ... to see our beloved land humiliated by racial bastards, a setback to the blackest patterns in the wilderness. "

When he ran for the US House of Representatives in 1952 , he stated that he had left the Ku Klux Klan after a little over a year, as the organization had never interested him again in the nine years since 1943. He declared that he had joined because it promised excitement and adventure and because he could identify with the strong anti-communism of the clan.

First regional mandates from 1946

In the 1946 election, Byrd won the seat for Raleigh County in the West Virginia House of Delegates , a chamber of the regional parliament. He held the seat from 1947 to 1950 before moving to the State Senate in 1951 and staying there until 1952.

During his time as a parliamentarian, he also attended evening school at the Washington College of Law at American University , from which he graduated in 1963.

In the United States Congress from 1952 to 2010

Robert Byrd in his younger years

When Democratic MP EH Hedrick from West Virginia's sixth congressional constituency no longer ran for House of Representatives, but for state governorship, Byrd decided to run for the United States House of Representatives and won the election. He was twice successful in re-election before successfully running against Republican incumbent W. Chapman Revercomb in the 1958 Senate election. After he often had to reckon with vehement opposition from the Republicans in his early years in re-elections, they have not invested much effort or money in an attempt to beat Byrd since Cleve Benedict's candidacy in 1982. Overall, Byrd won seven re-elections, all of them by a large margin, in 1994 and 2000 he won a majority of the votes in all 55 counties of West Virginia, in 2000 even in 1963 from 1970 individual constituencies. Nevertheless, he always had an opponent - with one exception in 1976.

Byrd was the longest-serving senator in US history. He reached this record on June 12, 2006 after overtaking the recently deceased Strom Thurmond from South Carolina with a time of 17,327 days in office .

Byrd last won the 2006 Senate election against media entrepreneur John Raese and was able to take up a previously unattained ninth term in January 2007. Several prominent Republicans had declined to run against him. Robert Byrd replaced Carl Hayden of Arizona on November 19, 2009 as the longest-serving Congressman in US history.

1976 presidential candidacy

Byrd ran once - in 1976 - in a presidential election. He ran in the primaries as " Favorite Son " only in his home state of West Virginia. He hoped that the decision on the Democratic presidential candidate would be so close that his delegate votes from West Virginia would influence the outcome of the nomination.

Except for George Wallace , no other Democrat ran in the West Virginia primary; he was not actively campaigning there. Byrd won the primary with a 90:10 vote.

His goal was not so much the US presidency, but by influencing the pre-election process to support the position of the majority leader , the democratic majority leader in the Senate. His entire campaign that year was also more focused on this goal - his victory in the Senatorial election was considered certain and so he was able to concentrate his attention on replacing the no longer running Majority Leader Mike Mansfield from Montana. He was so successful that his last opponent Hubert H. Humphrey withdrew before the final ballot began.

Senior positions in the United States Senate

At the beginning of his first term of office, his longtime political companion, the then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson , appointed him a member of the influential Committee on Appropriations . In the years of democratic majorities in the Senate, from 1989 to 1995, from 2001 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2009, he was its chairman.

Byrd is a member of the Democratic group leadership since 1967 . That year he became Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference . His first influential leadership position in the group he reached in 1971 as Senate Majority Whip , the second highest position within the group. From 1977 to 1989 he led the parliamentary group, as Senate Majority Leader from 1977 to 1981 and from 1987 to 1989 and as Senate Minority Leader from 1981 to 1987.

Byrd was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of the Rules of Procedure and the internal structure of the Senate. During his years as a majority leader, he used this knowledge to frustrate and outmaneuver opponents by using arcane rules of procedure tricks. Among other things, he devised the procedure known as the "Nuclear Option", which makes it possible to end a filibuster with a simple majority instead of the actually necessary majority of three fifths of the votes. (The Nuclear Option was never actually applied, it acts - here is the parallel to nuclear weapons - disciplining through its mere possibility.) Byrd's political savvy was shown, among other things, by the Byrd Amendment , a law by which US companies against dumping foreign ones Companies should be protected, but this was inconsistent with international trade rules. Although the bill was not passed in the Senate Finance Committee, Byrd added it to a budget bill at the last minute and had the entire Senate voted on it; In order not to jeopardize the budget for the next year, the amendment was adopted, which led to years of disputes, international sanctions and WTO proceedings against the USA.

As the longest-serving Democrat, Byrd was President Pro Tempore from 1989 to 1995, when the Republicans won the Senate majority and were entitled to this office. In 2001 he took this office briefly when Al Gore's vote as Vice President gave the Democrats a wafer-thin majority, but gave it up again after the inauguration of George W. Bush and thus also of Vice President Dick Cheney . From 2001 to 2003, the Democrats regained a majority after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republicans, and Byrd was again president. When the 108th Senate met with a clear Republican majority in 2003, it lost office again. Since the Democrats regained a majority in the 2006 Senate election, he held the office again from January 4, 2007 until his death.

In his last term, Byrd served on four committees. He chaired the influential Committee on Appropriations several times, including in his last term of office. Most recently Byrd was also a member of the Committee on Armed Services , the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Rules and Administration .

Political positions and actions

Although Byrd was long and deeply involved in the leadership of the Democratic faction, he was considered a comparatively conservative senator with a reputation for placing the interests of the Senate and those of West Virginia above those of his party.

Early in his Senate tenure, Byrd worked with other Southern Democrats to vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . He led the filibuster with a speaking time of over 14 hours and justified his behavior by saying that the law curtailed the rights of the states . He also opposed the Voting Rights Act , but voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He later publicly regretted the first two votes.

The American Civil Liberties Union gave him a 70 percent rating for his life's votes on civil liberties, and the League of Conservation Voters gave him 65 percent for his votes on environmental issues. The National Journal led Byrd because of his voting results on a scale from liberal to conservative as 65.5% "liberal" and thus the seventh most conservative Senator of the Democrats.

In 1969, Byrds began a state college scholarship program for valedictorians from West Virginia's high schools. The program is the Ministry of Education's only purely performance-based scholarship program and is now named after Byrd. The scholarship runs annually, and recipients can reapply three times for a subsequent year.

He launched another program to promote education in 2001 with the “Teaching American History” program. Also known as the Byrd Grants, the program is designed to promote the teaching of United States history in public schools. Back then, the Department of Education was distributing US $ 120 million annually to schools and school districts that worked for three years to provide teachers with the skills to teach the story in "exciting, engaging, and impactful" ways.

He prominently opposed Bill Clinton several times . In the Clinton impeachment case, he insisted from the start that the allegations should be taken seriously and that a thorough investigation be carried out. In the end, he did not agree to the impeachment motion, but was the only Democrat in favor of an official reprimand by the Senate. He was relatively conservative on the issue of whether abortions were allowed.

Byrd supported John Roberts , whom Bush nominated as presiding judge of the Supreme Court, and also elected Samuel Alito . However, like most Democrats, he was against Bush's policy of lowering taxes and downsizing the US social security system.

Byrd directed federal funds for investment to his home state of West Virginia , the second poorest state in the United States after Mississippi . A steady stream of state-funded highways, dams, educational institutions, and federal agencies has resulted. He achieved his goal of bringing more than one billion dollars to West Virginia during his tenure in 1991. He is the record holder of all congressional members for objects that are named after him, now more than 30 federal projects bear his name (see section #Namesgiver ). Byrd was close friends with the Alaska Republican Ted Stevens , with whom he took turns chairing the investment committee between 1995 and 2005 and who had a similarly controversial reputation. It was only when Byrd publicly and vehemently opposed the policies of George W. Bush that their friendship suffered.

Attitude to minorities

Due to his membership in the Ku Klux Klan and his earlier vehement opposition to civil rights legislation, Byrd was long considered a racist, but declared in the 1990s that he had left that time behind. In an interview with C-SPAN he regretted his previous voting behavior, which he justified with the fact that it is not the legislature's task to integrate society, but that it is the task of the white majority to tear down the “white only” signs. But he has since changed his attitude; he no longer believed that society alone would be able to solve the problem; instead, legal measures such as the Civil Rights Act were necessary. He changed his mind completely when his grandson died in a car accident in 1982; In this emotional valley he had thought a lot and it had become clear to him that blacks love their children as much as he does.

Byrd voted against both the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the judge at the Supreme Court and against Thurgood Marshall , the only two African-American candidate, as well as against Janice Rogers Brown as a judge at the Federal Court of Appeal, and against the appointment of Condoleezza Rice . Among other things , he was accused by the Congress of Racial Equality , a conservative civil rights group, of rejecting the candidates for racist reasons; he himself said that this was only for reasons of content; for example, he voted for Education Secretary Roderick Paige and Foreign Secretary Colin Powell .

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) gave Byrd in the 108th Senate (2003-2005) as one of 17 Senators a score of 100%, that is, he voted on all 33 questions concerning the civil rights of African Americans as the NAACP deemed necessary.

Byrd vehemently opposed opening the US armed forces to homosexuals ( don't ask, don't tell ) and opposed the recognition of same-sex partnerships . Nevertheless, for constitutional reasons, he was against a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited this entirely. Byrd was against affirmative action .

Opposition to the Iraq War and the "War on Terror"

Robert Byrd in conversation with Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Byrd took part in more than 17,000 votes in the Senate and was particularly proud of his opposition to the Iraq war. He led a filibuster to authorize the war , but was unable to garner enough votes even among party friends in the Senate to prevent the debate from ending prematurely.

On March 19, 2003, when President Bush ordered the attack on Iraq, Byrd, in a Senate speech, summarized his opposition to the war in the following words:

“Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. "

“Today I cry for my country. I have followed the events of the past few months with a heavy, heavy heart. The image of America as a strong but benevolent keeper of peace no longer exists. The image of America has changed. Our friends all over the world distrust us, our word is doubted, our intentions are called into question. Instead of speaking sensibly with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten retribution. "

On October 17, 2003, in a Senate address on the Iraq war, he referred President George W. Bush to Hans Christian Andersen's “ The Emperor's New Clothes ”. He complained about the intimidation of the Senate members ("cowed Members of this Senate") and called on them to object to the continuation of a "war based of falsehoods" (war based on lies). He resisted the marginalization of the legislature and saw the right to ask questions, discuss and contradict in danger - the "drums of war" were being beaten louder and louder and attempts to drown out other opinions, even in the Senate, the "greatest legislative organ of the World".

Byrd campaigned against the Department of Homeland Security law in 2002 because it bundled too much power in the executive branch. But he was given the position of leading democrat in the subcommittee on investment of this ministry and was able to oversee the organization. As one of ten senators, he voted against the extension of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2006 .

In July 2004 he published the book Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency , which dealt critically with George W. Bush's government policy and particularly the Iraq war.

Senate historian

When the television broadcaster C-SPAN began operating on March 19, 1979, television images were broadcast from the House of Representatives for the first time . Byrd feared that as a result, the House of Representatives in particular would be perceived as “the US Congress ” and that the Senate would be reduced to the invisible part of the legislature. He campaigned for Senate meetings to be televised, an initiative that he eventually succeeded in in 1986.

During the 1980s, Byrd gave 100 speeches in the Senate, which also dealt intensively with the history of the body and were published in book form: The Senate: 1789 - 1989. In 2004, he received the first ever “Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson” for the entire work Award for Civil Service, ”a prize awarded by the American Historical Association to non-scholars who have made significant contributions to the study of history. For the first part an additional prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government. Byrd also studied the history of the Roman Senate extensively and published in 1995: The Senate of the Roman Republic: Addresses on the History of Roman Constitutionalism ( United States Government Printing Office , 1995).

Public appearances outside of politics

Byrd as a teenager with a violin

Byrd was an above-average violin player, a hobby he started as a teenager in various square dance bands. He used this ability in various election campaigns and in 1978 released an album US Senator Robert Byrd: Mountain Fiddler (County, 1978), on which the country gentlemen accompanied him. Above all, the album consists of traditional music from the Appalachian region. Byrd has appeared as a violinist at the Kennedy Center and on the television program Hee Haw .

In the 2003 Warner Bros. film Gods and Generals , he played the role of a general of the Confederate States of America .

Works

• Child of the Appalachian Coalfields. West Virginia University Press, Morgantown 2005, ISBN 1-933202-00-9 .
• Losing America: Confronting A Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. 2004, ISBN 0-393-05942-1 .
• Senate of the Roman Republic: Addresses on the History of Roman Constitutionalism. 1995, ISBN 0-16-058996-7 .
• The Senate, 1789-1989.
  • Vol. 1: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate , ISBN 0-16-006391-4 .
  • Vol. 2: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate , ISBN 0-16-006405-8 .
  • Vol. 3: Classic Speeches, 1830–1993 , ISBN 0-16-063257-9 .
  • Vol. 4: Historical Statistics, 1789-1992 , ISBN 0-16-063256-0 .

Namesake

More places and institutions are named after Byrd than any other member of Congress in US history. Critics see this primarily as an expression of his vanity and shrewdness in the distribution of federal funds, while defense lawyers attribute this figure to his long tenure and his advocacy of public interests. All places are in his home state of West Virginia. Named after him are:

• Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center at Marshall University , Huntington , West Virginia
• Robert C. Byrd Addition to the Lodge in Oglebay Park , Wheeling
• Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway System, part of the Appalachian Development Highway System
• Robert C. Byrd Auditorium at the National Conservation Training Center , Shepherdstown
• Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center at Marshall University, Huntington
• Robert C. Byrd Bridge, between Huntington and Chesapeake , Ohio
• Robert C. Byrd Cancer Research Laboratory, West Virginia University , Morgantown
• Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University , Shepherdstown
• Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition to the Veterans' Hospital, Huntington
• Robert C. Byrd Community Center, Pine Grove
• Robert C. Byrd Conference Center at Davis and Elkins College , Elkins
• Robert C. Byrd Drive, from Beckley to his hometown of Sophia
• Robert C. Byrd Expressway, US Highway 22 , near Weirton
• Robert C. Byrd Federal Building & Courthouse, Beckley
• Robert C. Byrd Federal Building & Courthouse, Charleston
• Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, Green Bank
• Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center, Princeton
• Robert C. Byrd Health and Wellness Center at Bethany College , Bethany
• Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown
• Robert C. Byrd High School, Clarksburg
• Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex, Rocket Center including the Erma Ora Byrd Conference & Learning Center
• Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park, Moorefield
• Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing; Huntington, Charleston, Bridgeport & Rocket Center
• Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation Center (and Parking Garage), Wheeling
• Robert C. Byrd Library & Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center at Mountain State University , Beckley
• Robert C. Byrd Locks & Dam, Gallipolis Ferry
• Robert C. Byrd Metals Fabrication Center, Rocket Center
• Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace Education Center, Bridgeport
• Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University , Wheeling
• Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center at Marshall University, Huntington
• Robert C. Byrd Science and Technology Center at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown
• Robert C. Byrd Technology Center at Alderson-Broaddus College , Philippi
• Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center
• Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park , Harpers Ferry
• Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University , Wheeling, named after his wife.

Web links

Commons : Robert Byrd  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Robert C. Byrd  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Robert Byrd in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Michael Barone: Robert C. Byrd. In: The West Virginia Encyclopedia , December 20, 2016 (English)
• Robert Byrd On the Issues (English)
• Michael Grunwald: Dept. of Sacred Cows: If This Is the Senate's Soul…. In: The Washington Post , June 18, 2006 (English, critical portrait).
• Adam Clymer: Robert C. Byrd, a Pillar of the Senate, Dies at 92. In: The New York Times , June 28, 2010 (English, obituary).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Eric Pianin: A Senator's Shame. Byrd, in His New Book, Again Confronts Early Ties to KKK. In: The Washington Post , June 19, 2005.
2. ^ William Rogers, Robert Ward, Leah Atkins, Wayne Flynt: Alabama: The History of a Deep South State. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL 1994, pp. 437 and 442; Arnold Rice: The Ku Klux Klan in American Politics. Haskell Brooklyn, NY 1972.
3. ^ West Virginia University Press, 2005, ISBN 1-933202-00-9 .
4. ↑ In the original: “I am a typical American, a southerner… and never in the world will I be convinced that race mixing in any field is good. ... I am loyal to my country ..., but I shall never submit to fight beneath that banner with a negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times… than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds. ”Quoted from Ira Katznelson: When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality In Twentieth-Century America. WW Norton, New York 2005, ISBN 0-393-05213-3 , p. 81.
5. ↑ ACLU “National Freedom Scoreboard” for Robert Byrd ( Memento of March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
6. ^ League of Conservation Voters "Vote Ratings" for Robert Byrd .
7. ^ These are the Members at the Ideological Center. ( Memento of May 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: National Journal , The Centrists , February 25, 2006, p. 29 (English, PDF).
8. ^ American Historical Society: Senator Byrd to Receive the AHA's Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award for Civil Service .
9. ^ Roll Call Votes 106th Congress - 1st Session (1999) .
10. ↑ Byrd: Last Chapter Isn't Written Yet. In: CNN.com , June 12, 2006.
11. ^ Robert Byrd: Why I weep for my country. In: The Guardian , March 23, 2003 (English, Byrd's speech in full).
12. ↑ In the original: “The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms. Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world's greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. " Robert Byrd: The Emperor Has No Clothes. In: CommonDreams , October 17, 2003 (English, Byrd's speech in full).