(1917–2010). U.S. politician Robert C. Byrd served as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1953 to 1959 and in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 2010. In 2006 he became the longest-serving U.S. senator in history, and he is the only person ever elected to nine full Senate terms. In 2009 he became the longest-serving member of Congress in history.
Robert Carlyle Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr., on Nov. 20, 1917, in North Wilkesboro, N.C. After his mother died, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle and raised in southern West Virginia. Although he attended numerous colleges after high school, he did not complete a bachelor’s degree until 1994, when he finished courses from Marshall University in West Virginia. In the meantime he earned a law degree in 1963 from American University in Washington, D.C., while serving in the Senate. In the early 1940s Byrd was involved with the Ku Klux Klan, although years later he became a supporter of civil rights. He worked at various menial jobs before he committed himself to politics.
In 1946 Byrd was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates. He served in the state senate from 1951 to 1952 before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and to the U.S. Senate in 1958. In his long Senate career Byrd held various leadership positions, including Democratic whip, majority leader, minority leader, and president pro tempore. He earned a reputation as a strong advocate for the working class, fought to bring industry and federal jobs to West Virginia, and sought to preserve Senate traditions. Known as a spirited public speaker, Byrd’s more memorable actions included a 14-hour filibuster to help stall the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a speech against the Iraq War in 2003.
Byrd was an expert on the Senate’s vast historical record, and he frequently recounted long-forgotten episodes of Senate history in his speeches. He wrote several books, including the four-volume The Senate, 1789–1989 (1989–94), The Senate of the Roman Republic (1994), Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency (2004), and Letter to a New President (2008). His memoir, Child of the Appalachian Coalfields, was published in 2005. Byrd died on June 28, 2010, in Falls Church, Va.