In a little-noticed ceremony before she flew off to attend Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner Saturday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton presented ex-Klansman-turned-Senator Robert Byrd with the Franklin Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedoms Award.
Addressing the crowd in Hyde Park, N.Y., Mrs. Clinton praised Byrd as a mentor, saying he provided a wonderful example for her.
"When I think of the Senate, I think of Robert Byrd," the former first lady said, according to an account in the Hyde Park Townsman.
It was during Roosevelt's third presidential term that Byrd joined the Klan, saying he wanted to fight communism. And though he left within a year, he continued to advise Klan leaders on how to expand the influence of the anti-black terror group.
In 1971, Byrd co-sponsored a measure to have the Senate's main office building named after Sen. Richard Russell, an unabashed white supremacist who led the fight against anti-lynching legislation in the Senate.
"He was kind of my mentor," Byrd said recently, noting that Sen. Russell was known as an expert on Senate rules, much like himself.
In 2001 Byrd was forced to apologize after he blurted out the "N"-word twice during a nationally televised interview.
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