Robert Byrd

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Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician who represented West Virginia in the United States Senate from 1959 until his death in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative from West Virginia's 6th congressional district from 1953 to 1959. Byrd is the longest serving senator in American history, the second longest serving member of Congress, and the only West Virginian to serve in both houses of the West Virginia Legislature and the U.S. Congress. Raised in southern West Virginia, Byrd's political career spanned more than sixty years. He first entered the political arena by organizing and leading a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, an action he later described as "the greatest mistake I ever made". In the time he earned Bachelor of Arts degree at the Marshall University and a Juris Doctor degree at the American University, Byrd served in the West Virginia House of Delegates...

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