Robert Byrd was known for his old-fashioned courtliness, but he never deferred to anyone who threatened the Senate’s prerogatives. In 2002, then–Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggested to a panel of senators that changes in tax law could be fast-tracked—meaning that Congress couldn’t amend them. Pulling a copy of the U.S. Constitution from his pocket, Byrd proceeded to harangue the Fed chairman on Congress’ power over the public purse. A chastened Greenspan quickly dropped the subject.
Born in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Byrd was raised by his uncle and aunt in West Virginia after his mother died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, said the Charleston, W.Va., Gazette. He married his high school sweetheart, Erma Ora James, in 1937, and worked as a filling-station attendant and a grocery clerk until the outbreak of World War II, which he spent as a shipyard welder in Baltimore and Tampa. After the war ended, he returned to West Virginia and opened a general store in Sophia, which he would call home for the next 65 years.
With his eyes on a political career, he joined the Ku Klux Klan—a decision he would never fully live down, said the London Guardian. He later claimed to have joined the Klan for its anti-communist views and to court rural votes, but at the time he also expressed racist sentiments, writing in 1945 that he would never serve in the armed forces alongside blacks. He remained an ardent segregationist through the 1960s, and opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he called his greatest mistake. He also came to regret his membership in the KKK, which, as he wrote in his autobiography, “emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me.” That was no exaggeration. In 1982, supporters of his opponent presented him with a Klan robe at a campaign rally.
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Byrd was a natural politician with a common touch, said The Wall Street Journal. He won crowds over with his speaking skills, honed in the 1940s as a lay Baptist preacher, and with his prowess on the fiddle. He won his first election, for state legislator, in 1947, and made his move to national politics in 1952, winning a seat in the House. With only a high school diploma, he took night courses for the next 10 years to earn a law degree. In 1958, he was elected to the Senate, where he served for 51 years, becoming the longest-serving member of either house in U.S. history.
As a senator, he had two overriding missions: preserving the constitutional system of checks and balances, and directing federal money to West Virginia, said the Chicago Tribune: “A master of Senate rules, he was by turns protective and disruptive of procedure, slowing debate with long, florid orations that invoked Greek philosophers, Roman generals, and the Founding Fathers.” In 1989 he became chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, vowing to gain $1 billion for West Virginia within five years. It took him only two.
In recent years, the once-loquacious Byrd rose less often to speak in the Senate, which he feared was losing its distinctive decorum and civility. “I love the Senate,” he said in 2006. “If I could live another 100 years, I’d like to continue in the Senate.”
