In the early 1940s, Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia.[12][11]

According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd later recalled, "Suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."[12] Byrd became a recruiter and leader of his chapter.[12] When it came time to elect the top officer (Exalted Cyclops) in the local Klan unit, Byrd won unanimously.[12]

In 1946, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo: 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.

In 1946, Byrd wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."[20] However, when running for the United States House of Representatives in 1952, he announced "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan." He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist.[12] But Byrd's friend and fellow Klansman Democratic Senator Theodore G. Bilbo told Meet the Press, "No man can leave the Klan. He takes an oath not to do that. Once a Ku Klux, always a Ku Klux."[21] Byrd never provided any corroboration for his claim to have quit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd#Ku_Klux_Klan