Confederate Group In Mississippi Proposes License Plates To Honor KKK Member

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I wonder, if Byrd believed this in the 1940's.... what would he have believed and carried out in the 1870's?

In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo:[17]

“ 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. ”

— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944,

Byrd recruited more than a hundred members to the Klan.

Forest actually disbanded the Klan in his time.

Byrd had the motivation of politics to adjust his views on race, Forest had no such selfish motives, even so Wilki notes this about him.

In 1875, Forrest demonstrated that his personal sentiments on the issue of race now differed from that of the Klan, when he was invited to give a speech before an organization of black Southerners advocating racial reconciliation, called the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association. At this, his last public appearance, he made what the New York Times described as a "friendly speech"[7] during which, when offered a bouquet of flowers by a black woman, he accepted them as a token of reconciliation between the races and espoused a radically progressive (for the time) agenda of equality and harmony between black and white Americans.[44]

I suspect you give Byrd the "pass" due to the environment he was raised, why is it some are granted this "understanding" and other aren't?

In all likelihood Byrd did change his views over the years but I wonder.... had he never got into politics and instead sold Insurance back in WV, would he have changed much?

I admire people who can look across centuries of change and decide which man is worthy of having bridges and Buildings and Monuments in their name and which names should be stricken from the

historical notation on a silly thing like a license plate (which I imagine will be an optional plate for those who want it.)

Steven has forgiven Byrd. That is the difference.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Steven has forgiven Byrd. That is the difference.

I wonder if he has forgiven Strom Thurmond.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I wonder if he has forgiven Strom Thurmond.

The day someone wants to commemorate Byrd's contribution to Southern segregation will be the day that RWN"s can make an issue of his past. Now back to topic. Lets see if any of the RWN's here will defend this Confederate Group's proposal to commemorate a former Grand Wizard of the KKK. Anyone? Buehler? ...or is the only answer to drop Byrd's name as some kind of moral equivalence. Weak sauce.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The day someone wants to commemorate Byrd's contribution to Southern segregation will be the day that RWN"s can make an issue of his past. Now back to topic. Lets see if any of the RWN's here will defend this Confederate Group's proposal to commemorate a former Grand Wizard of the KKK. Anyone? Buehler? ...or is the only answer to drop Byrd's name as some kind of moral equivalence. Weak sauce.

I doubt he would be commemorated for his being a KKK leader. It could just possibly be for his service to his country in the War against the Yankee invaders.

[Danno 1,228]

I wonder if he has forgiven Strom Thurmond.

I wonder if he has forgiven Abe Lincoln after all, he not only tried to keep ex-slaves in line, his effort was aimed at deporting them back to Africa.

Lincoln sought to deport freed slaves

The Great Emancipator was almost the Great Colonizer: Newly released documents show that to a greater degree than historians had previously known, President Lincoln laid the groundwork to ship freed slaves overseas to help prevent racial strife in the U.S.

Just after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Lincoln authorized plans to pursue a freedmen’s settlement in present-day Belize and another in Guyana, both colonial possessions of Great Britain at the time, said Phillip W. Magness, one of the researchers who uncovered the new documents.

Historians have debated how seriously Lincoln took colonization efforts, but Mr. Magness said the story he uncovered, to be published next week in a book, “Colonization After Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement,” shows the president didn’t just flirt with the idea, as historians had previously known, but that he personally pursued it for some time.

“The way that Lincoln historians have grappled with colonization has always been troublesome. It doesn’t mesh with the whole ‘emancipator,’ ” Mr. Magness said. “The revelation of this story changes the picture on that because a lot of historians have tended to downplay colonization. … What we know now is he did continue the effort for at least a year after the proclamation was signed.”

Mr. Magness said the key documents he and his co-author, Sebastian N. Page, a junior research fellow at Oxford, found were in British archives, and included an order authorizing a British colonial agent to begin recruiting freed slaves to be sent to the Caribbean in June 1863.

By early 1864, the scheme had fallen apart, with British officials fretting over the legality of the Emancipation Proclamation and the risk that the South could still win the war, and with the U.S. Congress questioning how the money was being spent.

Roughly a year later, Lincoln was assassinated.

The Belize and Guyana efforts followed other aborted colonization attempts in present-day Panama and on an island off the coast of Haiti, which actually received several hundred freed slaves in 1862, but failed the next year.

Michael Burlingame, chair of Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said there are two ways to view Lincoln’s public support for colonization.

One side holds that it shows Lincoln could not envision a biracial democracy, while the other stance — which Mr. Burlingame subscribes to — says Lincoln’s public actions were “the way to sugarcoat the emancipation pill” for Northerners.

Story Continues →

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/9/book-lincoln-sought-to-deport-freed-slaves/