Robert C. Byrd

Robert C. Byrd (born November 20, 1917, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, U.S.—died June 28, 2010, Falls Church, Virginia) was an American Democratic politician who served as a representative from West Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives (1953–59) and as a U.S. senator from West Virginia (1959–2010). Byrd was the longest-serving member of the Senate and longest-serving member of Congress in American history. In his decades-long Senate career, Byrd held various leadership positions, including Democratic whip (1971–77), majority leader (1977–80, 1987–88), minority leader (1981–86), and president pro tempore (1989–95, 2001–03, 2007–10).

Following the death of his mother in 1918, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle and raised in southern West Virginia; they changed his name from Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr., to Robert Carlyle Byrd. After graduating from high school in a class of fewer than 30 students, he was a part-time student at Beckley College, Concord College, Morris Harvey College, and Marshall College (now Marshall University), all in West Virginia. Although he did not complete his bachelor’s degree from Marshall University until 1994, he earned a law degree (1963) from American University in Washington, D.C., while serving in the Senate. In the early 1940s Byrd organized a local Ku Klux Klan chapter, although years later he had a change of heart and became a strong supporter of civil rights. He worked as a butcher, a coal miner, and a grocery store proprietor before launching his political career by getting elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946. He served in the state senate (1951–52) before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and to the U.S. Senate in 1958.

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As a senator, Byrd earned a reputation as a strong advocate for the working class as he sought to ensure accessibility to health care and greater educational and employment opportunities for his constituents. As minority and later majority leader during the 1980s, he often found himself at odds with Pres. Ronald Reagan (1981–89); he implored the president to withdraw U.S. marines from Lebanon in 1984 and criticized him sharply during the Iran-Contra Affair in 1986. After Pres. George H.W. Bush (1989–93) signed into law the Clean Air Act (1990), which threatened the livelihood of coal miners in his home state, Byrd worked to bring industry and federal jobs to West Virginia through his position as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee (1988–2008). He also provided needed guidance on procedural matters during Senate hearings on the impeachment of Pres. Bill Clinton (1993–2001) in 1998. Byrd opposed the reorganization of federal security agencies undertaken by Pres. George W. Bush (2001–09)—including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security—in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, and he was a vocal critic of the Iraq War (2003–11). Byrd, who suffered declining health in his last years of service, was a supporter of Pres. Barack Obama’s efforts to overhaul health care and in the final stages of the legislation cast his votes from a wheelchair.

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Byrd distinguished himself as an expert on the Senate’s vast historical record, and he frequently gave impromptu speeches in which he recounted long-forgotten episodes of Senate history. His celebrated four-volume series The Senate, 1789–1989 (1989–94) was followed by The Senate of the Roman Republic (1994), Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency (2004), and Letter to a New President (2008). His memoir—Child of the Appalachian Coalfields (2005)—examined not only his political career but also the embarrassment he still felt over his early ties to the KKK.