Byrd was not a KKK grand wizard — but he did once lead a chapter
This picture of Biden and Byrd was taken by the Associated Press in October 2008 at a campaign rally in Charleston, West Virginia, during the time that Biden was running for vice president alongside then-Sen. Barack Obama.
Byrd grew up in West Virginia, which is where he got involved with the KKK.
“Many of the ‘best’ people were members — even senators and other high officials,” he wrote in his autobiography. “It was with such background impressions, therefore, that I sought to become a member of the KKK in the early 1940s.”
He recounted in his autobiography that at that time, he wrote a letter to Joel L. Baskin, the Klan’s grand dragon in his area, asking to join. In order to start a Klan chapter, or “klavern,” in his town, Byrd was tasked with recruiting 150 people to the Klan. When he involved enough people to start a klavern, a unanimous vote among the recruits named him “Exalted Cyclops” of their group, which is the highest-ranking position in a chapter.
After the meeting, Byrd said that Baskin encouraged him to pursue politics, citing his savvy organizing skills.
Byrd went on to become the second-longest-serving U.S. congressman in the country’s history, clocking six years in the House of Representatives and 51 years in the Senate. During his time in the Senate, he was both the minority and majority leader, and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Throughout Byrd’s political career, he continually denounced his involvement with the Klan.
“The greatest mistake I ever made was joining the Ku Klux Klan,” Byrd said in a 1993 interview with CNN’s Bernard Shaw, according to Slate. “And I’ve said that many times. But one cannot erase what he has done. He can only change his ways and his thoughts. That was an albatross around my neck that I will always wear. You will read it in my obituary that I was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.”
https://www.adelnews.com/zz/news/20200615/fact-check-photo-shows-biden-with-byrd-who-once-had-ties-to-kkk-but-wasnt-grand-wizard