A native of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) served as the Senate’s president pro tempore from January 200 until his death on June 28, 2010. He previously held the post during two other periods, 1989-1995 and 2001-2003.

 

Byrd graduated from American University Law School in 1963 and received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Marshall University in 1994.

 

His political career began in the West Virginia House of Delegates, where he served from 1947-1950. He was elected to the West Virginia Senate in 1951 and resigned in 1952 after he was elected to Congress. Byrd served in the US House of Representatives from 1953 to 1959. He was elected to the US Senate in 1958 and reelected in 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006

 

Byrd has held a variety of leadership positions, including: Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference (1967-1971); Democratic whip (1971-1977); Majority Leader (1977-1980, 1987-1988); Minority Leader (1981-1986); and chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations (2001-2003).

 

In June 2006, Byrd became the longest serving senator in the history of the Senate.

 

Before Byrd entered politics, he joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1942, when he was 24 years old. He reportedly helped start a local chapter of the KKK, and when it came time to select a leader, Byrd was chosen as the Exalted Cyclops. In his later years, Byrd often referred to his Klan membership as a mistake of his youth.

 

During his long tenure in the Senate, Byrd has steered millions of federal dollars to his small state of West Virginia. When he became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he sought to steer a total of $1 billion for public works to West Virginia. Federal funds have streamed to West Virginia for highways, dams, educational institutions, and federal agency offices, many of which bear Byrd’s name. This work also earned Byrd another name—the “king of pork”—by Congressional watchdogs who track pork-barrel spending by senators and representatives.