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Friday, July 09, 2010
Byrd made a mark on history
BY FINBARR SLATTERY
A LEGENDARY figure on the US political scene passed away last week with many records under his belt.
He was one Robert Carlyle Byrd who emerged during a lifetime in politics from being a member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) which was no longer the white-hooded organisation going around at night, whipping and killing blacks and their white supporters because the blacks had been freed from slavery. It had become an organisation that counted Catholics, Jews, foreigners and Labour Unions among its enemies.
Robert went from being an advocate of that sort of behaviour to becoming a supporter of Civil Rights which ended discrimination based on race, colour, religion or national origin. That was some about-turn. A Reuter report in The Irish Times (June 29, 2010) captures very well in its opening report on his death:
"Washington – US senator Robert Byrd, who evolved from a segregationist to a civil rights advocate in becoming the longestserving member ever of the Congress, died yesterday. First elected in 1952, Byrd was 92."
He served in Congress since 1953 being first elected to the House of Representatives in November 1952 – nine years before President Obama, who he supported enthusiastically in his quest for the presidency, was born. When he entered the political arena that year nobody in their wildest dreams could foresee Robert Byrd backing a black man for the presidency of the USA.
After three, two-year, terms in the House of Representatives he was elected to the Senate and he has been elected Senator for West Virginia in 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006 and has become the longest serving senator. He never lost an election and cast over 18,680 roll call votes in the Senate.
He served with a dozen US presidents. He was no supporter of John F Kennedy in his election to the presidency, throwing his weight behind Hubert Humphrey in his quest for the Democratic nomination in 1960.
Senator Byrd spoke for more than 15 hours on one occasion – a filibuster speech intended to defeat efforts to cut off further debate about President Johnson’s Civil Rights Bill.
By all accounts he was a gifted speaker. Sprinkled with classical quotations, you might have imagined he was an eye witness to the murder of Julius Caesar (to quote from Rupert Cornwell’s obituary in the Independent on June 29).
Byrd was the senator supreme. He loved it right from the start and ended up by being actually part of it you could say. He was the last senator from the 1950s still alive and in early 2008, eight of his colleagues were even born when he took up his seat in January 1959.
And to conclude with an honourable mention of Senator Robert Byrd’s proudest vote of the 18,000 odd mentioned – it was his vote against authorising the war in Iraq in October 2002.
Here are a few words from his speech on 19 March 2003, as the invasion began: "Today I weep for my country. The image of America has changed. Around the globe our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, out intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination."
Senator Robert Byrd certainly made his mark in the history of the USA.
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