GOP candidate wants to remove Byrd’s name from buildings in West Virginia [View all]
A Republican candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates hopes to introduce a bill to remove the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrds name from all public buildings and highways across the state.
Thomas Goodman, whos running in the 37th District against incumbent Mike Pushkin, said Byrds affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan was grounds for scrubbing the senators name from more than 50 buildings, bridges and roads in West Virginia.
In the 1940s, Byrd applied for membership in the Ku Klux Klan and organized a 150-member Klan unit in Raleigh County. Later in life, he apologized, calling those actions the biggest mistake of his life.
Were living in this time where were trying to take these modern social standards and apply them retroactively over hundreds of years of American government, Goodman said Thursday during a meeting with Gazette-Mail editors. Because some of these issues are at the forefront of the national conversation, almost synonymously West Virginias and Senator Byrds past are mentioned in tandem. I think thats an embarrassment.
See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20160922/gop-candidate-wants-to-remove-byrds-name-from-buildings-in-wv