[August]

Dowly is the king of the selective quote. Here's the part from Wiki link that he didn't want to include:

n 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.[10][12] As a young boy, Byrd had witnessed his adoptive father walk in a Klan parade in Matoaka, West Virginia. While growing up, Byrd had heard that "the Klan defended the American way of life against racemixers and communists". He then wrote to Joel L. Baskin, Grand Dragon of the Realm of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, who responded that he would come and organize a chapter when Byrd had recruited 150 people. Byrd’s house couldn't fit 150 people, so he arranged to hold the ceremony at the home of C.M. “Clyde” Goodwin, a former law enforcement officer who lived in Crab Orchard, West Virginia. When Baskin called for nominations for Exalted Cyclops, the highest-ranking official in the Klavern, Byrd was nominated and quickly elected by unanimous vote.[18]
It was Baskin who told Byrd, "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."[19] 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 December 1944, 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.
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944[12][20]

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."

But yeah I guess no transgression can not be forgiven if it's a Democrat because you know, Trump...