1885 illustration from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, captioned "Misto' Bradish's nigger"

Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people (generally people of Sub-Saharan African descent), and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur, and suggests that its target is extremely unsophisticated. The word originated as a term used in a neutral context to refer to black people, as a variation of the Spanish/Portuguese noun negro, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger (“color black”).^[1][2][3][4]

Etymology and history[link]

The variants neger and negar, derive from the Spanish and Portuguese word negro (black), and from the now-pejorative French nègre (nigger). Etymologically, negro, noir, nègre, and nigger ultimately derive from nigrum, the stem of the Latin niger (black) (pronounced [ˈniɡer] which, in every other grammatical case, grammatical gender, and grammatical number besides nominative masculine singular, is nigr-, the r is trilled).

In the Colonial America of 1619, John Rolfe used negars in describing the African slaves shipped to the Virginia colony.^[5] Later American English spellings, neger and neggar, prevailed in a northern colony, New York under the Dutch, and in metropolitan Philadelphia’s Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch communities; the African Burial Ground in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name "Begraafplaats van de Neger" (Cemetery of the Negro); an early US occurrence of neger in Rhode Island, dates from 1625.^[6] An alternative word for African Americans was the English word, "Black", used by Thomas Jefferson in his Notes on the State of Virginia. Among Anglophones, the word nigger was not always considered derogatory, because it then denoted “black-skinned”, a common Anglophone usage.^[7] Nineteenth-century English (language) literature features usages of nigger without racist connotation, e.g. the Joseph Conrad novella The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' (1897). Moreover, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain created characters who used the word as contemporary usage. Twain, in the autobiographic book Life on the Mississippi (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating reported usage, but used the term "negro" when speaking in his own narrative persona.^[8]

In the United Kingdom and the Anglophone world, nigger denoted the dark-skinned (non-white) African and Asian (i.e., from India or nearby) peoples colonized into the British Empire, and "dark-skinned foreigners" — in general.

By the 1900s, nigger had become a pejorative word. In its stead, the term colored became the mainstream alternative to negro and its derived terms. Abolitionists in Boston, Massachusetts, posted warnings to the Colored People of Boston and vicinity. Writing in 1904, journalist Clifton Johnson documented the "opprobrious" character of the word nigger, emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than "colored."^[9] Established as mainstream American English usage, the word colored features in the organizational title of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, reflecting the members’ racial identity preference at the 1909 foundation. In the Southern United States, the local American English dialect changes the pronunciation of negro to nigra. Linguistically, in developing American English, in the early editions of A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806), lexicographer Noah Webster suggested the neger new spelling in place of negro.^[10]

By the late 1960s, the social progress achieved by groups in the United States such as the Black Civil Rights Movement (1955–68), had legitimized the racial identity word black as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. In the 90's, "Black" was later displaced in favor of the compound blanket term African American. Moreover, as a compound word, African American resembles the vogue word Afro-American, an early-1970s popular usage. Currently, some black Americans continue to use the word nigger, often spelled as nigga and niggah, without irony, to either neutral effect or as a sign of solidarity.^[11]

Usages[link]

British[link]

In the United Kingdom and the Anglophone world, nigger denoted the dark-skinned (non-white) African and Asian (i.e., from India or nearby) peoples colonized into the British Empire, and "dark-skinned foreigners" — in general.

In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), H. W. Fowler states that applying the word nigger to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states: "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks.' ".

Victorian writer Rudyard Kipling used it in 'How the Leopard Got His Spots' and 'A Counting-Out Song' to illustrate the usage of the day. Likewise, P. G. Wodehouse used the phrase “Nigger minstrels” in Thank You, Jeeves (1934), the first Jeeves–Bertie novel, in admiration of their artistry and musical tradition.

As recently as the 1950s, it may have been acceptable British usage to say niggers when referring to black people, notable in mainstream usages such as Nigger Boy–brand^{[citation needed]} candy cigarettes, and the color nigger brown or simply nigger (dark brown); ^[12] however, by the 1970s the term was generally recognized as racist, offensive and potentially illegal along with the variants "nig-nog" and "golliwog". As recently as 2007, the term nigger brown reappeared in the model label of a Chinese-made sofa, presumably regional Chinese usage of an out-dated form of English.^[13] Agatha Christie's book Ten Little Niggers was first published in London in 1939 and continued to appear under that title until the early 1980s, when it became And Then There Were None.^[14][15]

North American[link]

Cultural: Addressing the use of nigger by black people, Cornel West said, “There’s a certain rhythmic seduction to the word. If you speak in a sentence, and you have to say cat, companion, or friend, as opposed to nigger, then the rhythmic presentation is off. That rhythmic language is a form of historical memory for black people... When Richard Pryor came back from Africa, and decided to stop using the word onstage, he would sometimes start to slip up, because he was so used to speaking that way. It was the right word at the moment to keep the rhythm together in his sentence making.”^[16] Contemporarily, the implied racism of the word nigger has rendered its usages social taboo. In the US, magazines and newspapers often do not use it, instead printing “family-friendly” censored versions, usually “n*gg*r”, “n**ger”, “n——”, and “the N-word”; however, historians and social activists, such as Dick Gregory, criticize the euphemisms and their usage as intellectually dishonest, because using the euphemism “the N-word” instead of nigger robs younger generations of Americans of the full history of Black people in America.

Political: Louisiana Governor Earl Long used nigger in advocating full voting rights for Black Americans; in that time, like colored and negro, it was mainstream usage in the American South.^{[citation needed]} In 1948, the Washington Post newspaper’s coverage of the presidential campaign of the segregationist politician Strom Thurmond, employed the periphrasis “the less-refined word for black people”.^{[citation needed]} In explaining his refusal to be conscripted to fight the Vietnam War (1965–75), professional boxer Muhammed Ali said, “No Vietcong ever called me nigger”;^[17] later, his modified answer was the title No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger (1968) of a documentary about the front-line lot of the US Army Black soldier in combat in Vietnam.^[18] An Ali biographer reports that, when interviewed by Robert Lipsyte in 1966, the boxer actually said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong”.^[19] The word can be invoked politically for effect. When Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came under intense scrutiny for his personal conduct in 2008, he deviated from an address to city council, saying, "In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life." Opponents accused him of "playing the Race Card" to save his political life.^[20]

On February 28, 2007, the New York City Council symbolically banned, with a formal resolution, the use of the word nigger; however, there is no penalty for using it. The New York City resolution also requests excluding from Grammy Award consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word nigger, however Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy doubts that it will have any effect on actual nominations.^[21][22]

In 2012, the abbreviated phrase "renig", which is a combination of "nigger" and "renege" started being used as a slogan against U.S. President Barack Obama.^[23][24]

Sport: In the first half of the twentieth century, before Major League Baseball was racially integrated, dark-skinned and dark-complexion players were nicknamed Nig;^[25][26] examples are: Johnny Beazley (1941–49), Joe Berry (1921–22), Bobby Bragan (1940–48), Nig Clarke (1905–20), Nig Cuppy (1892–1901), Nig Fuller (1902), Johnny Grabowski (1923–31), Nig Lipscomb (1937), Charlie Niebergall (1921–24), Nig Perrine (1907), and Frank Smith (1904–15). The 1930s movie The Bowery with George Raft and Wallace Beery includes a NYC sports-bar named “Nigger Joe’s”.

Denotational extension[link]

The denotations of nigger also comprehend non-white and racially disadvantaged people; the US politician Ron Dellums said, “... it's time for somebody to lead all of America’s niggers”.^[27] Jerry Farber's 1967 protest, The Student as Nigger invoked the word as a metaphor for the victims of an authoritarian society. In 1969, in the UK, in the course of being interviewed by a Nova magazine reporter, artist Yoko Ono said, “... woman is the nigger of the world”; three years later, her husband, John Lennon, published the song “Woman is the Nigger of the World” (1972) — about the virtually universal exploitation of woman — proved socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities. In 1978, singer Patti Smith used the word in “Rock N Roll Nigger”. In 1979, singer Elvis Costello used nigger in “Oliver's Army”, a state-of-the-world-today song which referred to people being shot dead trying to circumvent 'Checkpoint Charlie' at the Berlin Wall to escape into West Germany. Later, the producers of the British talent show Stars in Their Eyes forced a contestant to censor one of its lines, changing “... all it takes is one itchy trigger — One more widow, one less white nigger” to the euphemistic “... one less white figure”. Moreover, in his autobiography, White Niggers of America: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec “Terrorist” (1968), Pierre Vallières, a Front de libération du Québec leader refers to the oppression of the Québécois people in North America.

In his memoir, All Souls, Michael Patrick MacDonald describes how many white residents of the Old Colony housing project in South Boston used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black.^[28]

Other languages[link]

Many other languages have words that sound the same as nigger (are homophonic), but do not necessarily have the same meaning, while on the other hand having ethnic slurs dissimilar to 'nigger' but carrying the same meaning.

Some examples of how other languages refer to a black person in a neutral and in a pejorative way:

• Dutch: neger is neutral, zwartje (little black one) can be amicably or offensively used, nikker is always pejorative^[29]
• Estonian: neeger is neutral^[30] (in some specific contexts it is used jokingly, e.g. IT-neeger); however, due to pressure from English-speaking world, must (dark/black), mustanahaline (black-skinned) and tumedanahaline (dark-skinned) are often adopted in mainstream media^[31].
• Brazilian Portuguese: negro and preto are neutral,^[32] nevertheless preto can be offensively used, is sometimes regarded as 'politically incorrect' and almost never proudly used by afro-Brazilians, crioulo and macaco are always extremely pejorative^[33]

Literary[link]

Historically, nigger is controversial in literature due to its usage as both a racist insult and a common noun. The white photographer and writer, Carl Van Vechten, a supporter of the Harlem Renaissance (1920s–30s), provoked controversy in the black community with the title of his novel Nigger Heaven (1926), wherein the usage increased sales; of the controversy, Langston Hughes wrote:

In the US, the recurrent (reading curricula) controversy about the vocabulary of the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), by Mark Twain — American literature (usually) taught in US schools — about the slave South, risks censorship because of 215 (counted) occurrences of the word nigger, most refer to Jim, Huckleberry's escaped-slave raft-mate.^[34][35] Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character in the nineteenth-century Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book was re-published in 2010 with edits removing "the 'N' word" as reported in Time online.^[36] The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been the subject of controversy in Arizona, where a parent group's attempt to have it removed from a required reading list was struck down by the court.

Moreover, unlike the literary escaped slave Jim, antebellum slaves used the artifice of self-deprecation (known as "Uncle Toms"), in pandering to societal racist assumptions about the black man's low intelligence, by advantageously using the word nigger to escape the violence inherent to slavery.^[37] Implicit to "Uncle Tomming" was the unspoken reminder to white folk that a presumably inferior and sub-human person could not, reasonably, be held responsible for poorly realized work, a kitchen fire, or any such catastrophic offense. The artificial self-deprecation deflected responsibility, in hope of escaping the violent wraths of overseer and master. Using nigger as a self-referential identity term also was a way of avoiding white suspicion, of encountering an intelligent slave, and so put whites at their ease. In context, a slave who referred to himself, or another black man, as a nigger presumed the master's perceiving him as a slave who has accepted his societally sub-ordinate role as private property, thus, not (potentially) subversive of the authority of the master's white supremacy.

Other late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British literary usages suggest neutral usage. The popular Victorian era entertainment, the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado (1885) twice uses the word nigger. In the song As some day it may happen, the executioner, Ko-ko, sings of executing the "nigger serenader and the others of his race", personified by black-faced singers singing minstrel songs. In the song A more humane Mikado, the Mikado sings of the punishment for older women who dye their hair or wear corsets, to be "Blacked like a nigger/With permanent walnut juice." Both lyrics are usually changed for contemporary performances.^[38] In addition, Ten Little Niggers (1939) was the original British title of Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, which has also been known by the alternate title Ten Little Indians.

The Reverend W. V. Awdry's The Railway Series (1945–72) story Henry's Sneeze, originally described soot-covered boys with the phrase "as black as niggers".^[39] In 1972, after complaints, the description was edited to "as black as soot", in the subsequent editions.^[39] Rev. Awdry is known for Thomas the Tank Engine (1946).

How the Leopard Got His Spots, in Just So Stories (1902), by Rudyard Kipling, tells of an Ethiopian man and a leopard, both originally sand-colored, deciding to camouflage themselves with painted spots, for hunting in tropical forest. The story originally included a scene wherein the leopard (now spotted) asks the Ethiopian man why he does not want spots. In contemporary editions of How the Leopard Got His Spots, the Ethiopian's original reply: "Oh, plain black's best for a nigger", has been edited to, "Oh, plain black’s best for me." Again, Kipling uses the word in A Counting-Out Song (Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides, 1923), the rhyme reads: "Eenie Meenie Mainee, Mo! Catch a nigger by the toe!"

In short story, The Basement Room (1935), by Graham Greene, the (sympathetic) servant character, Baines, tells the admiring boy, son of his employer, of his African British colony service, "You wouldn't believe it now, but I've had forty niggers under me, doing what I told them to". Replying to the boy’s question: "Did you ever shoot a nigger?" Bains answers: "I never had any call to shoot. Of course I carried a gun. But you didn’t need to treat them bad, that just made them stupid. Why, I loved some of those dammed niggers." The cinematic version of The Basement Room short story, The Fallen Idol (1948), directed by Carol Reed, replaced novelist Greene’s niggers usage with natives.^{[citation needed]}

Popular culture[link]

In the US and the UK, the word nigger featured in branding and packaging consumer products, e.g. “Nigger Hair Tobacco” and “Niggerhead Oysters”, Brazil nuts were called nigger toes, et cetera. As racism became unacceptable in mainstream culture, the tobacco brand became “Bigger Hare” and the canned goods brand became “Negro Head”.^[40][41][42] The Chinese Nanhai De Xing Leather Shoes Habiliment Co., Ltd.'s online store describes the color of a model of man’s leather boots as “nigger-brown”.^[43]

Cinema[link]

The movie Blazing Saddles (1974) used nigger to ridicule US racism. In Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), the sequence titled “Danger Seekers” features a stuntman effecting the dangerous stunt of shouting "Niggers!" at a group of black people, then fleeing when they chased him.

The movie Full Metal Jacket (1987) depicts black and white U.S. Marines enduring boot camp and later fighting together in Vietnam. "Nigger" is used by soldiers of both races in jokes and as expressions of bravado ("put a nigger behind the trigger", says the black Corporal "Eightball"), with racial differences among the men seen as secondary to their shared exposure to the dangers of combat: Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) says, "There is no racial bigotry here. We do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers, because here you are all equally worthless."

Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) featured a scene where villain Simon Peter Gruber (Jeremy Irons) required NYPD Lt. John McClane (Bruce Willis) to wear a sandwich board reading "I hate niggers" while standing on a street corner in predominantly-black Harlem, resulting in McClane meeting Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) as Carver rescued McClane from being attacked by neighborhood toughs.

Literature[link]

In 1897, Joseph Conrad penned a novella titled The Nigger of the Narcissus, whose titular character, James Wait, is a West Indian black sailor on board the merchant ship Narcissus sailing from Bombay to London. In the United States, the novel was first published with the title The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle, at the insistence by the publisher, Dodd, Mead and Company, that no one would buy or read a book with the word nigger in its title,^[44] not because the word was deemed offensive but that a book about a black man would not sell.^[45] In 2009, WordBridge Publishing published a new edition titled The N-Word of the Narcissus, which also excised the word nigger from the text. According to the publisher, the point was to get rid of the offensive word, which may have led readers to avoid the book, and make it more accessible.^[46] Though praised in some quarters, many others denounced the change as censorship.

Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has long been the subject of controversy for its racial content, including its use of the word "nigger" as applied to the escaped slave character Jim. Huckleberry Finn was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the American Library Association.^[47] In 2011, a new edition of the book published by NewSouth Books replaced the word "nigger" throughout the book with the word "slave" and also removed the word "injun". The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar Alan Gribben in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship'" that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns.^[48] The changes sparked outrage from critics and scholars.^[49]

Music[link]

Responding to accusations of racism after referring to "niggers" in the lyrics of the Guns N' Roses song, “One in a Million”, Axl Rose stated "I was pissed off about some black people that were trying to rob me. I wanted to insult those particular black people. I didn't want to support racism."^[50] The country music artist David Allan Coe used the racial terms "redneck", "white trash", and "nigger" in the songs “If That Ain’t Country, I’ll Kiss Your Ass” and “Nigger Fucker”.^[51] In the 1960s, record producer J. D. "Jay" Miller published pro-racial segregation music with the “Reb Rebel” label featuring racist songs by Johnny Rebel and others, demeaning black Americans and the Black Civil Rights movement.^[52]

Contemporarily, rap groups such as N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitudes), re-popularized the usage in their songs.

Theatre[link]

The musical Show Boat (from 1927 until 1946) features the word and "nigger" as originally integral to the lyrics of “Ol' Man River” and “Cotton Blossom”; although deleted from the cinema versions, it is included in the 1988 EMI recording of the original score. Musical theatre historian Miles Kreuger and conductor John McGlinn propose that the word was not an insult, but a blunt illustration of how white people then perceived black people.

Cultural controversy[link]

"Nigger-brown" colored furniture[link]

In April 2007, a dark brown leather sofa set, sold by Vanaik Furniture and Mattress Store in Toronto, Canada, was labelled as “Nigger-brown” color. Investigation determined that the Chinese manufacturer used an outdated version of Kingsoft's Chinese-to-English translation software for writing the tags; it translated the Chinese “dark-brown” characters to “Nigger-brown”, and neither the Canadian supplier nor the store owner had noticed the incorrectly translated tag; subsequently, Kingsoft corrected its translation software.^{[53][54][55][56]}

"Nigger brown" pants[link]

In 2012, a knock off site of the clothing branch Abercrombie & Fitch based in China called abercrombie-and-fitchoutlet.com offered "nigger brown pants" for sale as the result of a faulty Chinese-to-English translator. This went viral on Twitter after people mistakenly believed that Abercrombie & Fitch were selling the product ^[57]

[edit] The Dam Busters film

Nigger was the name of a black dog that belonged to Wing Commander Guy Gibson,^[58] a Second World War, Royal Air Force hero. The film The Dam Busters (1955) features Gibson as a main character and his dog is depicted in several scenes. Both in the film and in the real events portrayed, the dog's name was also a radio codeword, used to report that Gibson's squadron had successfully destroyed one of its targets.

Some of the scenes in which the dog's name is uttered were later shown in the 1982 film Pink Floyd The Wall.^[59]

In 1999, the British television network ITV broadcast a censored version with each of the twelve^[60] utterances of Nigger deleted. Replying to complaints against its censorship, ITV blamed the regional broadcaster, London Weekend Television, which, in turn, blamed a junior employee as the unauthorised censor. In June 2001, when ITV re-broadcast the censored version of The Dam Busters, the Index on Censorship criticised it as “unnecessary and ridiculous” censorship breaking the continuity of the film and the story.^[61] In January 2012 the film was shown uncensored on ITV4, but with a warning at the start that the film contained racial terms from the historical period which some people could find offensive. Versions of the film edited for US television have the dog's name altered to "Trigger".^[60]

The name has caused some controversy with a remake of The Dam Busters, produced by Peter Jackson. A 2009 newspaper article suggests that the name will be changed to "Nigsy" in the new film.^[60]

Derivations[link]

Anti-abolitionist cartoon from the 1860 presidential campaign illustrating colloquial usage

• Nigger as "defect" (a hidden problem), derives from "nigger in the woodpile", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles.^[7]

• In American English: nigger lover initially applied to abolitionists, then to white folk sympathetic towards black Americans.^[62] Sand nigger, an ethnic slur against Arabs, and timber nigger and prairie nigger, ethnic slurs against Native Americans, are examples of the racist extension of nigger upon other non-white peoples.^[63]

• In several English-speaking countries, "Niggerhead" or "nigger head" was used as a name for all sorts of things, including commercial products, places, plants and animals, as well as a colloquial technical term in industry, mining and seafaring.

• In the Victorian era, the 1840s Morning Chronicle newspaper report series London Labour and the London Poor, by Henry Mayhew, records the usages of both nigger and its false cognate niggard denoting a false bottom for a grate.^[64]

• Flora and fauna nomenclatures include the word nigger. The Arizonan nigger-head cactus, Echinocactus polycephalus is a round, cabbage-sized plant covered with large, crooked thorns. The colloquial names for echinacea (coneflower) are "Kansas niggerhead" and "Wild niggerhead". In Oceania, the "niggerhead termite" (Nasutitermes graveolus) is a native of Australia.^[65]

• During the Spanish–American War US Army General John J. Pershing's original nickname, Nigger Jack, given to him as an instructor at West Point because of his service with "Buffalo Soldier" units, was euphemized to Black Jack by reporters.^[66][67]

• In 1960, a stand at the stadium in Toowoomba, Australia, was named the "E. S. 'Nigger' Brown Stand" honoring 1920s rugby league player Edward Stanley Brown, so nicknamed since early life because of his pale white skin; so known all his life, his tombstone is engraved Nigger. Stephen Hagan, a lecturer at the Kumbari/Ngurpai Lag Higher Education Center of the University of Southern Queensland sued the Toowoomba council over the use of nigger in the stand's name; the district and state courts dismissed his lawsuit. He appealed to the High Court of Australia, who ruled the naming matter beyond federal jurisdiction. At first some local Aborigines did not share Mr Hagan's opposition to nigger.^[68] Hagan appealed to the United Nations, winning a committee recommendation to the Australian federal government, that it force the Queensland state government to remove the word nigger from the "E. S. 'Nigger' Brown Stand" name. The Australian federal government followed the High Court's jurisdiction ruling. In September 2008, the stand was demolished. The Queensland Sports Minister, Judy Spence, said that using nigger would be unacceptable, for the stand or on any commemorative plaque. The 2005 book The N Word: One Man's Stand by Hagan includes this episode.^[68][69]

Place names[link]

The word nigger features in official place-names, such as "Nigger Bill Canyon", "Nigger Hollow", and "Niggertown Marsh". In 1967, the United States Board on Geographic Names changed the word nigger to Negro in 143 place names. First changed to "Negrohead Mountain", a peak above Santa Monica, California was renamed on (February 2010) to Ballard Mountain in honor of John Ballard, a black pioneer who settled the area in the 19th Century. "Nigger Head Mountain", at Burnet, Texas, was so named because the forest atop it resembled a black man's hair. In 1966, the US First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, denounced the racist name, asking the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and the U.S. Forest Service to rename it, becoming "Colored Mountain" in 1968; and in West Texas, "Dead Nigger Creek" was renamed "Dead Negro Draw".^[70] "Nigger Nate Grade", near Temecula, California, named for Nate Harrison, an ex-slave and settler, was renamed "Nathan Harrison Grade Road" in 1955, at the request of the NAACP.^{[71][72][73][74][75]}

In northwestern North America, particularly in Canada and the US, there are places which feature many uses of the word nigger.^{[76][77][78][79]} At Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, "Niggertoe Mountain" was renamed Mount Nkwala. The place-name derived from a 1908 Christmas story about three black men who died in a blizzard; the next day, the bodies of two were found at the foot of the mountain.^[80] A point on the Lower Mississippi River, in West Baton Rouge Parish, named "Free Nigger Point" until the late twentieth century, first was renamed "Free Negro Point", but currently is named "Wilkinson Point".^[81] "Nigger Head Rock", protruding from a cliff above Highway 421, north of Pennington Gap, Virginia, was renamed "Great Stone Face" in the 1970s.

Derivatives[link]

[edit] The N-word euphemism

The euphemism the N-word became mainstream American English usage during the racially contentious murder trial of ex-footballer O. J. Simpson in 1995.

Key prosecution witness Detective Mark Fuhrman, of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) – who denied using racist language on duty – impeached himself with his prolific use of nigger in tape recordings about his police work. The recordings, by screenplay writer Laura McKinney, were from a 1985 research session wherein the detective assisted her with a screenplay about LAPD policewomen. Fuhrman excused his use of the word saying he used nigger in the context of his "bad cop" persona. Linguistically, the popular press reporting and discussing Fuhrman’s testimony substituted the N-word in place of nigger.

Homophones[link]

Niger occurs in Latinate scientific nomenclature and is the root word for some homophones of nigger; sellers of niger seed (used as bird feed), sometimes use the name Nyjer seed. The classical Latin pronunciation /ˈniɡeɾ/ sounds like the English /ˈnɪɡər/, occurring in biologic and anatomic names, such as Hyoscamus niger (black henbane), and even for animals that are not in fact black, such as Sciurus niger (fox squirrel).

Nigra is the Latin feminine form of niger (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as substantia nigra (black substance).

The word niggardly (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to nigger, derived from the Old Norse word nig (stingy) and the Middle English word nigon. In the US, this word has been misheard or misread to mean nigger, therefore being taken as offensive. In January 1999, David Howard, a white Washington, D.C. city employee, was compelled to resign after using niggardly — in a financial context — while speaking with black colleagues, who took umbrage. After reviewing the misunderstanding, Mayor Anthony Williams offered to reinstate Howard, who refused reinstatement for another job elsewhere in the mayor's government.^[85]

The portmanteau word wigger (white + nigger) denotes an adolescent white boy emulating "street black behavior", hoping acceptance to the hip hop, thug, and gangsta sub-cultures.

Intragroup versus intergroup usage[link]

Black hearers often react differently to the term when it is used by white speakers and by black speakers. In the former case, it is regularly understood as an insult; in the latter, it may carry notes of in-group disparagement, or even be understood as neutral or affectionate, a possible instance of reappropriation.

Among the black community, the slur nigger is almost always rendered as nigga, a pronunciation emphasizing the unique intra-racial dialect of black people. A self-referential pronoun in African American Vernacular English usage popularized by the rap and hip-hop music cultures. In these situations, it is used as in-group lexicon and speech, wherein it is not necessarily derogatory.^[86]

Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word "nigga" is still debated, although it has established a foothold amongst younger generations. The NAACP denounces the use of both "nigga" and "nigger". Mixed-race usage of "nigga" is still considered taboo, particularly if the speaker is white. However, trends indicate that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even amongst white youth due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture.^[87]

According to Arthur K. Spears (Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 2006)

In many African-American neighborhoods, nigga is simply the most common term used to refer to any male, of any race or ethnicity. Increasingly, the term has been applied to any person, male or female. "Where y’all niggas goin?" is said with no self-consciousness or animosity to a group of women, for the routine purpose of obtaining information. The point: Nigga is evaluatively neutral in terms of its inherent meaning; it may express positive, neutral or negative attitudes;

While Kevin Cato observes:

For instance, a show on Black Entertainment Television, a cable network aimed at a black audience, described the word nigger as a "term of endearment." "In the African American community, the word nigga (not nigger) brings out feelings of pride" (Davis 1). Here the word evokes a sense of community and oneness among black people. Many teens I interviewed felt that the word had no power when used amongst friends, but when used among white people the word took on a completely different meaning. In fact, comedian Alex Thomas on BET stated, "I still better not hear no white boy say that to me... I hear a white boy say that to me, it means 'White boy, you gonna get your ass beat.'"^[88]

See also[link]

Language portal

• Controversies about the word "niggardly"
• Cultural appropriation
• Discrimination
• Guilty or Innocent of Using the N Word
• Kaffir (ethnic slur)
• List of ethnic group names used as insults
• List of ethnic slurs
• List of topics related to Black and African people
• "Niggas vs. Black People"
• Profanity
• Racism
• Reappropriation
• Taboo
• The Student as Nigger (essay)
• With Apologies to Jesse Jackson, an episode of an animated comedy series, South Park, in which Stan's dad, Randy becomes a social pariah after saying "niggers" on Wheel of Fortune
• Profanity by language
• Category of English profanity

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• "nigger". The Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). 1989. 
• Fuller, Neely Jr. (1984). The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept: A Textbook/Workbook for Thought, Speech, and/or Action, for Victims of Racism (white supremacy). ASIN B000BVZW38. 
• Kennedy, Randall (2002). Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-375-42172-6. 
• Smith, Stephanie (2005). Household Words: Bloomers, Sucker, Bombshell, Scab, Nigger, Cyber. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4552-3. 
• Swan, Robert J. (2003). New Amsterdam Gehenna: Segregated Death in New York City, 1630-1801. Brooklyn: Noir Verite Press. ISBN 0-9722813-0-4. 
• Worth, Robert F. (Fall 1995). "Nigger Heaven and the Harlem Renaissance". African American Review 29 (3): 461–473. DOI:10.2307/3042395. JSTOR 3042395. 

External links[link]

Look up N-word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up nigger in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Analysis of the cultural uses of the word Nigga by Alex Alonso of Street Gangs Magazine
• "Nigger and Caricatures," Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University
• "Nigger (the word), a brief history!" from the African American Registry
• Appropriating a Slur in M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture
• "Let's Make a Deal on the N-Word: White folks will stop using it, and black folks will stop pretending that quoting it is saying it," John McWhorter, The Root

Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle, 2007
Birth name	David Khari Webber Chappelle
Born	(1973-08-24) August 24, 1973 (age 38) Washington, D.C., U.S.[1]
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1987–present
Genres	Satire/political satire, improvisational comedy, observational comedy, surreal humor, sketch comedy, black comedy, blue comedy
Subject(s)	Racism, race relations, American politics, African American culture, pop culture, recreational drug use, human sexuality, morality
Influences	Richard Pryor,[2] Eddie Murphy,[2] Mel Blanc,[2] Chris Rock[3]
Spouse	Elaine Chappelle (2001–present) 3 children
Notable works and roles	Himself and Various in Chappelle's Show Himself in Dave Chappelle's Block Party Achoo in Robin Hood: Men in Tights Thurgood Jenkins in Half Baked
Signature

David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle^[4] (/ʃəˈpɛl/; born August 24, 1973)^[1] is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His first lead role in a film was in Half Baked in 1998. In 2003, he became widely known for his popular sketch comedy television series, Chappelle's Show, which ran until his abrupt retirement from the show in 2005. Chappelle is ranked forty-third in Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.^[5]

Early life[link]

Chappelle was born David Khari Webber Chappelle in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 1973.^[1][2] His father, William David Chappelle III, was a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.^[2] His mother, Yvonne (née Reed), was a professor at Howard University, Prince George's Community College, and the University of Maryland and is also a Unitarian Universalist minister.^[6][7][8] Chappelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Woodlin Elementary School.^[2] During young Chappelle's formative years, his comic inspiration came from various comedians, particularly Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor.^[2]

After his parents separated, Chappelle stayed in Washington with his mother while spending summers with his father in Ohio. In 1991, he graduated from Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts where he studied theatre arts.^[2]

Chappelle moved to New York City to pursue a career as a comedian. He gathered the courage to perform at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater in front of the infamous "Amateur Night" audience. The performance resulted in him being booed off the stage. Chappelle has described the experience as the moment that gave him the courage to continue his show business aspirations.^[2] He quickly made a name for himself in the New York comedy circuit, even performing in the city's parks. At the age of 19, Chappelle made his film debut as "Ahchoo" in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights. In the same year, Chappelle was offered the role of Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue in Forrest Gump. Concerned about what seemed to be a racially demeaning character, he turned down the part; the film would go on to win Academy Award for Best Picture that year. He has since admitted to regretting the decision.^[9] Chappelle played another supporting movie role in 1994's little-seen Getting In.

He attracted the attention of TV network executives and developed numerous pilots but none of them were picked up for series.^[2][10] In 1995, he made a guest appearance in an episode of ABC's highly rated sitcom Home Improvement. The storyline had Chappelle and real-life friend comedian Jim Breuer ask Tim Taylor for advice on their girlfriends. The characters' single outing in the episode proved so popular that ABC decided to give them their own spin-off sitcom titled Buddies. However, after taping a pilot episode, Jim Breuer was fired and replaced with actor Christopher Gartin. Buddies premiered in March 1996 to disappointing ratings. The show was cancelled after only four episodes out of thirteen that were produced. Nine years later, in May 2005, ten of the episodes were released on a single-disc DVD to capitalize on Chappelle's new-found fame.

After the failure of Buddies, Chappelle starred in another pilot. According to Chappelle, the network was uncomfortable with the African-American cast and wanted white actors added. Chappelle resisted and subsequently accused the network of racism. Shortly after this incident, Chappelle's father died. Chappelle returned to Ohio and considered leaving the entertainment business.^[2][10]

He later appeared as a nightclub comedian in the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy, one of his major comedic influences. He also had a minor role in 1997's Con Air. He and Neal Brennan co-wrote the 1998 cult stoner film Half Baked, Chappelle's first starring role, about a group of marijuana-smoking friends trying to get their friend out of jail. That same year, he appeared in "Pilots and Pens Lost", a 1998 episode of The Larry Sanders Show's sixth season, in which he and the executives of the show's nameless television network satirized the treatment to which scriptwriters and show creators were subjected, as well as the executives' knee-jerk tendencies toward racial stereotypes. In December of that year Chappelle appeared as Tom Hanks' friend and confidant in You've Got Mail. In 1999, he appeared in the Martin Lawrence film Blue Streak.

In 2000, Chappelle recorded his first HBO special, Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly, in Washington, DC.^[11] He followed this up with an appearance as "Conspiracy Brother" in the 2002 racial satire Undercover Brother.

[edit] 2003–2006: Standup and Chappelle's Show

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly sketch comedy show on Comedy Central called Chappelle's Show. The show parodied many aspects of American culture including racial stereotypes, politics and pop culture. Along with comedy skits, the show also featured musical performances by mostly hip-hop and soul artists.

Chappelle's pointed social and political commentary quickly helped the show garner critical and commercial success as well as controversy.^[10][12] Richard Pryor, one of Chappelle's comedic influences, was a fan of the show and stated that he had "passed the torch" to Chappelle.^[10] Chappelle received two Emmy nominations for the show.^[13] Additionally, the DVD set became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date, overtaking the previous best-selling, The Simpsons first season DVD. It had sold over 3 million copies.^[14] Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $55 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects. Chappelle had stated that sketches are not his favorite form of comedy, and that the characteristics of the show's format were somewhat like short films.

In June 2004, based on the popularity of the "Rick James" sketch, it was announced that Chappelle was in talks to portray Rick James in a biopic from Paramount Pictures (also owned by Viacom).^[15] James's estate disagreed with the proposed comical tone of the film and put a halt to the talks.^[16]

In 2004, Chappelle recorded his second comedy special, this time airing on Showtime - Dave Chappelle: For What It's Worth, at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium.^[17]

Season three turbulence[link]

In a June 2004 stand-up performance in Sacramento, California, Chappelle walked off the stage after berating his audience for constantly shouting "I'm Rick James, bitch!," which became a catchphrase from the popular "Rick James" sketch. After a few minutes, Chappelle returned and continued by saying, "The show is ruining my life." He stated that he disliked working "20 hours a day" and that the popularity of the show was making it difficult for him to continue his stand-up career, which was "the most important thing" to him. He also told the audience:

You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you're not smart enough to get what I'm doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong. You people are stupid.^[18]

Season 3 was scheduled to air on May 31, 2005, but in that month, Chappelle stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of Chappelle's Show and took a trip to South Africa. Chappelle has since stated that he was unhappy with the direction the show had taken.

Coming here I don't have the distractions of fame. It quiets the ego down. I'm interested in the kind of person I've got to become. I want to be well rounded and the industry is a place of extremes. I want to be well balanced. I've got to check my intentions, man.^[19]

Return[link]

In June 2005, Chappelle performed impromptu stand-up shows in Los Angeles.^[20][21][22] He then went on a tour that began in Newport, Kentucky, not far from his Ohio home.^[23] He also made a surprise appearance on HBO's Def Poetry where he performed two poems, titled Fuck Ashton Kutcher and How I Got the Lead on "Jeopardy!."^[24] He was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005 at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show premiered on February 12, 2006.^[25] Chappelle stated that the death of his father in 1998 had an impact on his decision to go to South Africa. By throwing himself into his work, he had not taken a chance to mourn his father's death. He also said the rumors that he was in drug or psychiatric treatment only persuaded him to stay in South Africa.^[2]

He continued:

I would go to work on the show and I felt awful every day, that's not the way it was. ... I felt like some kind of prostitute or something. If I feel so bad, why keep on showing up to this place? I'm going to Africa. The hardest thing to do is to be true to yourself, especially when everybody is watching.

Chappelle also said that he felt some of his sketches were "socially irresponsible."^[26][27] He singled out the "pixie sketch" in which pixies appear to people and encourage them to reinforce stereotypes of their races. In the sketch, Chappelle is wearing blackface and is dressed as a character in a minstrel show.^[28] According to Chappelle, during the filming of the sketch, a crew member was laughing in a way that made him feel uncomfortable and made him rethink the show.^[26][27] Chappelle said, "it was the first time I felt that someone was not laughing with me but laughing at me."^[26]

During these interviews, Chappelle did not rule out returning to Chappelle's Show to "finish what we started," but promised that he would not return without changes to the production, such as a better working environment. He also stated he would like to donate half of the DVD sales to charity.^[29] Chappelle expressed disdain at the possibility of his material from the unfinished third season being aired, saying that to do so would be "a bully move," and that he would not return to the show if Comedy Central were to air the unfinished material.^[27] On July 9, 2006, Comedy Central aired the first episode of Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes. An uncensored DVD release of the episodes was made available on July 25.

The show still plays in syndication on several television networks despite the relatively small number of episodes compared to most American syndicated television programs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Dave Chappelle's Block Party

The site of Dave Chappelle's Block Party in Brooklyn.

Chappelle was the star and producer of the Michel Gondry-directed documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party, which chronicles a Chappelle-hosted concert in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn on September 18, 2004. Several musical artists, including Kanye West, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Dead Prez and Jill Scott are featured in the movie both performing in the concert and in conversation off-stage. The most surprising highlight of the event was the "last minute" reunion of popular 1990s hip hop group The Fugees. Chappelle toured several cities in February and March 2006 to promote the film under the moniker "Block Party All-Stars featuring Dave Chappelle". Universal Pictures' genre division Rogue Pictures released the film in the United States on March 3, 2006.

2007–present[link]

In April 2007, Chappelle set a stand-up endurance record at the Laugh Factory Sunset Strip comedy club, beating comedian Dane Cook's record of 3 hours and 50 minutes. In December of the same year, Chappelle broke his own record with a time of 6 hours and 12 minutes. Cook reclaimed the record in January 2008, with a time of 7 hours.^[30] On November 19, 2009 Chappelle performed at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where it was speculated that he would aim to take back the record. However, he was disqualified according to the club owner, after he left the stage, five hours into his routine.^[31]

Chappelle again appeared on Inside the Actors Studio and in celebration of the show's 200th episode, he humorously interviewed the show's usual host, James Lipton. The episode aired on November 11, 2008.

Personal life[link]

Chappelle lives with his wife Elaine, two sons,^[28] Sulayman^[32] and Ibrahim,^[33] and daughter Sonal, on a 65-acre (260,000 m²) farm,^[2][10] just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio.^[23] He also owns several houses in Xenia, Ohio. Regarding his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Chappelle says, "Turns out you don't need $50 million to live around these parts, just a nice smile and a kind way about you. You guys are the best neighbors ever," he stated at a blues and jazz festival in the town in mid-September 2006. "That's why I came back and that's why I'm staying."^[34]

Chappelle is a Muslim, having converted to Islam in 1998. He told Time Magazine in a May 2005 interview, "I don’t normally talk about my religion publicly because I don’t want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way."^[35]

Filmography[link]

This section requires expansion.

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Chappelle

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dave Chappelle

• Dave Chappelle at the Internet Movie Database
• Video of Anderson Cooper 360 Interview
• Fresh Air Interview in 2004

Robert Byrd
Official Senate picture, 2007
President pro tempore of the Senate
In office January 3, 2007 – June 28, 2010
Leader	Harry Reid
Preceded by	Ted Stevens
Succeeded by	Daniel Inouye
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Leader	Tom Daschle
Preceded by	Strom Thurmond
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens
In office January 3, 2001 – January 20, 2001
Leader	Tom Daschle
Preceded by	Strom Thurmond
Succeeded by	Strom Thurmond
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1995
Leader	George Mitchell
Preceded by	John Stennis
Succeeded by	Strom Thurmond
2nd President pro tempore emeritus of the Senate
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Leader	Bill Frist
Preceded by	Strom Thurmond
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens
Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1989
Deputy	Alan Cranston
Preceded by	Bob Dole
Succeeded by	George Mitchell
In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1981
Deputy	Alan Cranston
Preceded by	Mike Mansfield
Succeeded by	Howard Baker
Senate Minority Leader
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1987
Deputy	Alan Cranston
Preceded by	Howard Baker
Succeeded by	Bob Dole
Senate Majority Whip
In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977
Leader	Mike Mansfield
Preceded by	Ted Kennedy
Succeeded by	Alan Cranston
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Thad Cochran
Succeeded by	Daniel Inouye
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Ted Stevens
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens
In office January 3, 2001 – January 20, 2001
Preceded by	Ted Stevens
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	John C. Stennis
Succeeded by	Mark Hatfield
United States Senator from West Virginia
In office January 3, 1959 – June 28, 2010
Preceded by	Chapman Revercomb
Succeeded by	Carte Goodwin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from West Virginia's 6th district
In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1959
Preceded by	Erland Hedrick
Succeeded by	John Slack
Personal details
Born	Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. (1917-11-20)November 20, 1917 North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	June 28, 2010(2010-06-28) (aged 92) Falls Church, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Erma James (1937–2006)
Children	Mona Marjorie
Alma mater	Marshall University American University
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Baptist[1][2]
Signature

Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959 and as a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010. He was the longest-serving senator and the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress.^[3][4][5]

Initially elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952, Byrd served there for six years before being elected to the Senate in 1958. He rose to become one of the Senate's most powerful members, serving as secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus from 1967 to 1971 and—after defeating his longtime colleague, Ted Kennedy—as Senate Majority Whip from 1971 to 1977. Byrd led the Democratic caucus as Senate Majority Leader from 1977 to 1981 and 1987 to 1989, and as Senate Minority Leader from 1981 to 1987. From 1989 to 2010 he served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate when the Democratic Party had a majority, and as President pro tempore emeritus during periods of Republican majority beginning in 2001.^[6] As President pro tempore, he was third in the line of presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. He also served as the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations from 1989 to 1995, 2001 to 2003, and 2007 to 2009, giving him extraordinary influence over federal spending.

Byrd's seniority and leadership of the Appropriations Committee enabled him to steer a great deal of federal money toward projects in West Virginia.^[7] Critics derided his efforts as pork spending^[8] to appeal to his own constituents. He filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and supported the Vietnam War, but later backed civil rights measures and criticized the Iraq War. He was briefly a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, but later left the group and denounced racial intolerance.^[9]

Background[link]

Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr.^[10] in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on November 20, 1917.^[6] When he was ten months old, his mother, Ada Mae (née Kirby), died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. In accordance with his mother's wishes, his father, Cornelius Calvin Sale,^[10] dispersed the family children among relatives. Titus and Vlurma Byrd, the infant's uncle and aunt, were given custody, adopted him, renamed him Robert Carlyle Byrd, and raised him in the coal-mining region of southern West Virginia.^[5][9][11]

Byrd was valedictorian of Mark Twain High School^[12] and attended Beckley College, Concord College, Morris Harvey College, and Marshall University, all in West Virginia.^[6] He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Family[link]

Marriage[link]

Byrd's wife, Erma Ora James (June 12, 1917 – March 25, 2006)^[13] was born in Floyd County, Virginia, to Fred James, a coal miner, and Mary James.^[14] She had one sister, Beulah Minton. At an early age, she relocated to Raleigh County, West Virginia with her family. There she met Robert Byrd while attending Mark Twain School.^{[citation needed]}

On May 29, 1937, she married Byrd when both were 19 years old.^[14] Only their parents attended the small ceremony at the home of Reverend U.G. Nichols.^{[citation needed]}

Erma Byrd was a member of the Senate Wives' Club and was involved in Senate Wives' Red Cross projects.^[14] In 1990, she was selected as Daughter of the Year by the West Virginia Society of Washington, D.C. She was later awarded a degree from Alderson–Broaddus College in 1991, and in 1994, Marshall University initiated the Erma Byrd Scholars Program. This recognition was followed by the Loyalty Permanent Endowment Fund of the West Virginia University Alumni Association, which established the Erma Ora Byrd Scholarship.^{[citation needed]}

Byrd's mother, Ada Mae Kirby

In October 1997, the Erma Byrd Garden at the Graceland Mansion at Davis and Elkins College was dedicated. Erma Byrd received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheeling Jesuit University soon after, which was followed by the dedication of the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies on the campus.^[14]

In May 1999, she was named Mother of the Year by the Thunder of the Tygart Foundation at the birthplace of Anna Jarvis, the surmised founder of Mother's Day. In the same month, Erma Byrd received the Graduate of Distinction Award from the Education Alliance in Charleston, West Virginia. In January 2004, the Erma Byrd Gallery at the University of Charleston opened.^[14]

Sen. Byrd, his wife, Erma, and dog, Trouble.

On March 25, 2006, Erma Byrd died at age 88 after battling a lengthy illness.^[14] Robert Byrd dedicated several buildings in honor of his wife, including the Erma Ora Byrd Hall nursing building at Shepherd University (June 2007),^[15] and the West Virginia University Erma Byrd Biomedical Research Center (September 2008).^[16]

Children[link]

The Byrds had two children, Mona Byrd Fatemi and Marjorie Byrd Moore; two sons-in-law, Mohammad Fatemi and Jon Moore; six grandchildren, Erik Byrd Fatemi, Mona Byrd Moore Pearson, Darius Fatemi, Mary Anne Moore Clarkson, Fredrik Fatemi, and Jon Michael Moore (deceased); and seven great-grandchildren, Caroline Byrd Fatemi, Emma James Clarkson, Kathryn James Fatemi, Hannah Byrd Clarkson, Michael Yoo Fatemi, Anna Cristina Fatemi, and James Matthew Fatemi.^[6]

Ku Klux Klan[link]

In the early 1940s, Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.^[9]

According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, "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."^[9] Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.^[9] When it came time to elect the "Exalted Cyclops", the top officer in the local Klan unit, Byrd won unanimously.^[9]

In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo:^[17]

In 1946 or 1947, 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."^[19] However, when running for the United States House of Representatives in 1952, he announced "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan." He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist.^[9]

In 1997, Byrd told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics but also: "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena."^[20] In his last autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a KKK member because he "was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision—a jejune and immature outlook—seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."^[21] Byrd also said, in 2005, "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."^[9]

Early career[link]

Byrd worked as a gas-station attendant, a grocery-store clerk, a shipyard welder during World War II, and a butcher, before he won a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946, representing Raleigh County from 1947 to 1950.^[6] In 1950, he was elected to the West Virginia Senate, where he served from 1951 to 1952.^[6] After being elected to the United States House of Representatives, he began night classes at American University's Washington College of Law in 1953, but did not receive his law degree from the university until a decade later,^[6] by which time he was a U.S. Senator. President John F. Kennedy spoke at the commencement ceremony in June 1963 and mentioned Byrd by name. Byrd also studied at The George Washington University Law School but did not receive an undergraduate degree until 1994, when he graduated from Marshall University.^[5]

In 1951, then–State Delegate Robert Byrd was among the official witnesses of the execution of Harry Burdette and Fred Painter, which was the first use of the electric chair in West Virginia.^[22] In 1965 the state abolished capital punishment, with the last execution having occurred in 1959.

Congressional service[link]

In 1952, Byrd was elected to the United States House of Representatives for West Virginia's 6th congressional district,^[6] succeeding E. H. Hedrick, who retired from the House to make an unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination Governor. Byrd was re-elected to the House twice, serving from January 3, 1953 to 1959.^[6] Byrd defeated Republican incumbent W. Chapman Revercomb for the United States Senate in 1958. Revercomb's record supporting civil rights had become an issue, playing in Byrd's favor.^[6] Byrd was re-elected to the Senate eight times. He was West Virginia's junior senator for his first four terms; his colleague from 1959 to 1985 was Jennings Randolph, who had been elected on the same day as Byrd's first election in a special election to fill the seat of the late Senator Matthew Neely.

While Byrd faced some vigorous Republican opposition in his career, his last serious electoral opposition occurred in 1982 when he was challenged by freshman Congressman Cleve Benedict. Despite his tremendous popularity in the state, Byrd ran unopposed only once, in 1976. On two other occasions – in 1994 and 2000 – he won all 55 of West Virginia's counties. In his re-election bid in 2000, he won all but seven precincts. Shelley Moore Capito, a Congresswoman and the daughter of Byrd's longtime foe, former governor Arch Moore, Jr., briefly considered a challenge to Byrd in 2006 but decided against it.

In the 1960 Democratic presidential election primaries, Byrd – a close Senate ally of Lyndon B. Johnson – endorsed and campaigned for Hubert Humphrey over front-runner John F. Kennedy in the state's crucial primary.^[23] However, Kennedy won the state's primary and eventually the general election.^[24]

Public service records[link]

An earlier portrait of Robert Byrd

Byrd was elected to a record ninth consecutive full Senate term on November 7, 2006. He became the longest-serving senator in American history on June 12, 2006, surpassing Strom Thurmond of South Carolina with 17,327 days of service.^[3] On November 18, 2009, Byrd became the longest-serving member in congressional history, with 56 years, 320 days of combined service in the House and Senate, passing Carl Hayden, an Arizona politician.^[4][5] Previously, Byrd had held the record for the longest unbroken tenure in the Senate (Thurmond resigned during his first term and was re-elected seven months later). Including his tenure as a state legislator from 1947 to 1953, Byrd's service on the political front exceeded 60 continuous years. Byrd, who never lost an election, cast his 18,000th vote on June 21, 2007, the most of any senator in history.^[5][25]

Upon the death of former Florida Senator George Smathers on January 20, 2007, Byrd became the last living United States Senator from the 1950s.^[26]

Byrd was the last surviving senator to have voted on a bill granting statehood to a U.S. territory. At the time of Byrd's death, fourteen sitting or former members of the Senate had not been born when Byrd's tenure in the Senate began, President Barack Obama among them.

Committee assignments[link]

These are the committee assignments for Sen. Byrd's 9th and final term.

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Homeland Security (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
  • Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Rules and Administration

Filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964[link]

Majority Whip Byrd meeting with President Gerald Ford

Byrd joined with other Southern and border-state Democrats to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964,^[27] personally filibustering the bill for 14 hours, a move he later said he regretted.^[28] Despite an 83-day filibuster in the Senate, both parties in Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Act, and President Johnson signed the bill into law.^[29] Byrd also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In 2005, Byrd told The Washington Post that his membership in the Baptist church led to a change in his views. In the opinion of one reviewer, Byrd, like other Southern and border-state Democrats, came to realize that he would have to temper "his blatantly segregationist views" and move to the Democratic Party mainstream if he wanted to play a role nationally.^[9]

Because of his opposition to desegregation, Byrd was a member of the wing of the Democratic Party that opposed desegregation and civil rights imposed by the federal government. However, despite his early career in the KKK, Byrd was linked to such senators as John C. Stennis, J. William Fulbright and George Smathers, who based their segregationist positions on their view of states' rights in contrast to senators like James Eastland, who held a reputation as a committed racist.

Leadership roles[link]

Drawer of the Senate desk used by Democratic leaders, including Byrd

Byrd served in the Senate Democratic leadership. He was secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference from 1967 to 1971.^[6] He served as majority whip, or the second highest-ranking Democrat from 1971 to 1977.^[6] From 1977 to 1989 Byrd was the leader of the Senate Democrats, serving as majority leader from 1977 to 1981 and 1987 to 1989, and as minority leader from 1981 to 1987.^[6]

In 1976, Byrd was the "favorite son" Presidential candidate in West Virginia's primary. His easy victory gave him control of the delegation to the Democratic national convention. Byrd had the inside track as majority whip but focused most of his time running for majority leader, more so than for re-election to the Senate, as he was virtually unopposed for his fourth term. By the time the vote for majority leader came, his lead was so secure that his lone rival, Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey, withdrew before the balloting took place.

President pro tempore Byrd and House Speaker Dennis Hastert presided over a special joint session following the September 11, 2001, attacks. Here President Bush shakes hands with Byrd.

Appropriations Committee[link]

Byrd was well known for steering federal dollars to West Virginia, one of the country's poorest states. He was called the "King of Pork" by Citizens Against Government Waste.^[30] After becoming chair of the Appropriations Committee in 1989, Byrd set a goal securing a total of $1 billion for public works in the state. He passed that mark in 1991, and funds for highways, dams, educational institutions and federal agency offices flowed unabated over the course of his membership. More than 30 existing or pending federal projects bear his name. He commented on his reputation for attaining funds for projects in West Virginia in August 2006, when he called himself "Big Daddy" at the dedication for the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center.^[31] Examples of this ability to claim funds and projects for his state include the Federal Bureau of Investigation's repository for computerized fingerprint records as well as several United States Coast Guard computing and office facilities.^[32]

Parliamentary expertise[link]

Byrd also was known for using his knowledge of parliamentary procedure. Byrd frustrated Republicans with his encyclopedic knowledge of the inner workings of the Senate, particularly prior to the Reagan Revolution. From 1977 to 1979 he was described as "performing a procedural tap dance around the minority, outmaneuvering Republicans with his mastery of the Senate's arcane rules."^[33] In 1988, majority leader Byrd moved a call of the Senate, which was adopted by the majority present, in order to have the Sergeant-at-Arms arrest members not in attendance. One member (Robert Packwood, R-Oregon) was escorted back to the chamber by the Sergeant-at-Arms in order to obtain a quorum.^[34]

President pro tempore[link]

As the longest-serving Democratic senator, Byrd served as President pro tempore four times when his party was in the majority:^[6] from 1989 until the Republicans won control of the Senate in 1995; for 17 days in early 2001, when the Senate was evenly split between parties and outgoing Vice President Al Gore broke the tie in favor of the Democrats; when the Democrats regained the majority in June 2001 after Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent; and again from 2007 to his death in 2010, as a result of the 2006 Senate elections. In this capacity, Byrd was third in the line of presidential succession at the time of his death, behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Scholarships and TAH History Grants[link]

In 1969, Byrd launched a Scholastic Recognition Award; he also began to present a savings bond to valedictorians from high schools—public and private—in West Virginia. In 1985 Congress approved the nation's only merit-based scholarship program funded through the U.S. Department of Education, a program which Congress later named in Byrd's honor. The Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program initially comprised a one-year, $1,500 award to students with "outstanding academic achievement" who had been accepted at a college or university. In 1993, the program began providing four-year scholarships.^[12]

In 2002 Byrd secured unanimous approval for a major national initiative to strengthen the teaching of "traditional American history" in K-12 public schools.^[35] The Department of Education competitively awards $50 to $120 million a year to school districts (in amounts of about $500,000 to $1 million). The money goes to teacher training programs that are geared to improving the knowledge of history teachers.^[36] The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 eliminated funding for the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program.^[37]

Senate historian[link]

Byrd and Dr. Richard Baker, a Senate historian

Television cameras were first introduced to the House of Representatives on March 19, 1979, by C-SPAN. Unsatisfied that Americans only saw Congress as the House of Representatives, Byrd and others pushed to televise Senate proceedings to prevent the Senate from becoming the "invisible branch" of government, succeeding in June 1986.

To help introduce the public to the inner workings of the legislative process, Byrd launched a series of one hundred speeches based on his examination of the Roman Republic and the intent of the Framers. Byrd published a four-volume series on Senate history: The Senate: 1789–1989: Addresses on the History of the Senate.^[38] The first volume won the Henry Adams Prize of the Society for History in the Federal Government as "an outstanding contribution to research in the history of the Federal Government." He also published The Senate of the Roman Republic: Addresses on the History of Roman Constitutionalism.^[39]

In 2004, Byrd received the American Historical Association's first Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award for Civil Service; in 2007, Byrd received the Friend of History Award from the Organization of American Historians. Both awards honor individuals outside the academy who have made a significant contribution to the writing and/or presentation of history.

Final-term Senate highlights[link]

The Dalai Lama receiving a Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. From left: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate President pro tempore Robert Byrd and U.S. President George W. Bush

On July 19, 2007, Byrd gave a 25-minute speech in the Senate against dog fighting, in response to the indictment of football player Michael Vick.^[40] In recognition of the speech, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named Byrd their 2007 Person of the Year.^[41]

For 2007, Byrd was deemed the fourteenth-most powerful senator, as well as the twelfth-most powerful Democratic senator.^[42]

Byrd with farmers from West Virginia

On May 19, 2008, Byrd endorsed Barack Obama (D-Illinois). One week after the West Virginia Democratic Primary, in which Hillary Clinton defeated Obama by 41 to 32 percent,^[43] Byrd said, "Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support."^[44] When asked in October 2008 about the possibility that the issue of race would influence West Virginia voters, as Obama is an African-American, Byrd replied, "Those days are gone. Gone!"^[45] Obama lost West Virginia (by 13 percent) but won the election.

On January 26, 2009, Byrd was one of three Democrats to vote against the confirmation of Timothy Geithner as United States Secretary of the Treasury (along with Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Tom Harkin of Iowa).^[46]

On February 26, 2009, Byrd was one of two Democrats to vote against the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, which if it had become law would have added a voting seat in the United States House of Representatives for the District of Columbia and add a seat for Utah (Democrat Max Baucus of Montana also cast a "nay" vote).^[47]

Although his health was poor, Byrd was present for every crucial vote during the December 2009 Senatorial healthcare debate; his vote was necessary so Democrats could obtain cloture to break a Republican filibuster. At the final vote on December 24, 2009, Byrd referenced recently deceased Senator Ted Kennedy, a devoted proponent, when casting his vote: "Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy! Aye!"^[48]

Political views[link]

Race[link]

Portrait of Byrd as Majority Leader

Late in his life, Byrd explicitly renounced his earlier views favoring racial segregation.^[49][50] Byrd said that he regretted filibustering and voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1964^[51] and would change it if he had the opportunity. He said joining the KKK was "the greatest mistake I ever made."^[49] Byrd also said that his views changed dramatically after his teenage grandson was killed in a 1982 traffic accident, which put him in a deep emotional valley. "The death of my grandson caused me to stop and think," said Byrd, adding he came to realize that black people love their children as much as he does his.^[52]

Byrd was the only senator to vote against both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court, the only two African-American nominees. In the former instance, Byrd asked FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to look into what Byrd believed to be the possibility that Marshall had either connections to communists or had a communist past.^[53] In the latter instance, Byrd stated that he was offended by Thomas' use of the phrase "high-tech lynching of uppity blacks" in his defense and that he was "offended by the injection of racism" into the hearing. He called Thomas' comments a "diversionary tactic" and said "I thought we were past that stage." Regarding Anita Hill's sexual harassment charges against Thomas, Byrd supported Hill.^[54] Byrd joined 45 other Democrats in voting against confirming Thomas to the Supreme Court.^[55]

For the 2003–2004 session, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)^[56] rated Byrd's voting record as being 100 percent in line with the NAACP's position on the 33 Senate bills they evaluated. 16 other senators received that rating. In June 2005, Byrd proposed an additional $10 million in federal funding for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., remarking that, "With the passage of time, we have come to learn that his Dream was the American Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently."^[57]

In a March 4, 2001 interview with Tony Snow, Byrd said of race relations:

Byrd's use of the term "white nigger" created immediate controversy. When asked about it, Byrd responded,

Clinton impeachment[link]

Byrd initially said that the impeachment proceedings against Clinton should be taken seriously. Although he harshly criticized any attempt to make light of the allegations, he made the motion to dismiss the charges and effectively end the matter. Even though he voted against both articles of impeachment, he was the sole Democrat to vote to censure Clinton.^[59]

Gay rights[link]

Byrd strongly opposed Clinton's 1993 efforts to allow gays to serve in the military and supported efforts to limit gay marriage. In 1996, before the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act, he said, "The drive for same-sex marriage is, in effect, an effort to make a sneak attack on society by encoding this aberrant behavior in legal form before society itself has decided it should be legal. [...] Let us defend the oldest institution, the institution of marriage between male and female as set forth in the Holy Bible."^[60]

Despite his previous position, he later stated his opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment and argued that it was unnecessary because the states already had the power to ban gay marriages.^[61] However, when the amendment came to the Senate floor, he was one of the two Democratic senators who voted in favor of cloture.^[62]

Abortion[link]

He was pro-choice and in 1995 voted against a ban on intact dilation and extraction, a late-term abortion procedure typically referred to by its opponents as "partial-birth abortion", but voted for a ban on subsequent occasions. Byrd voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which recognizes a "child in utero" as a legal victim if he or she is injured or killed during the commission of a crime of violence.

In 2003, Byrd voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which prohibits intact dilation and extraction.^[63]

George W. Bush era[link]

Byrd praised the nomination of John G. Roberts to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Likewise, Byrd supported the confirmation of Samuel Alito to replace retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Like most Democrats Byrd opposed Bush's tax cuts and his proposals to change the Social Security program.

Byrd opposed the 2002 Homeland Security Act, which created the Department of Homeland Security, stating that the bill ceded too much authority to the executive branch.

He also led the opposition to Bush's bid to win back the power to negotiate trade deals that Congress cannot amend, but lost overwhelmingly. In the 108th Congress, however, Byrd won his party's top seat on the new Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

In July 2004, Byrd released the book Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency, which criticized the Bush presidency and the war in Iraq.

Iraq War[link]

Byrd with Secretary of Defense-designate Robert Gates, November 30, 2006

Byrd with then-Lieutenant General David Petraeus, January 23, 2007

Byrd led a filibuster against the resolution granting President George W. Bush broad power to wage a "preemptive" war against Iraq, but he could not get even a majority of his own party to vote against cloture.^[64]

Byrd was one of the Senate's most outspoken critics of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Byrd anticipated the difficulty of fighting an insurgency in Iraq, stating on March 13, 2003,

On March 19, 2003, when Bush ordered the invasion after receiving congressional approval, Byrd said,

Byrd also criticized Bush for his speech declaring the "end of major combat operations" in Iraq, which Bush made on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Byrd stated on the Senate floor,

On October 17, 2003, Byrd delivered a speech expressing his concerns about the future of the nation and his unequivocal antipathy to Bush's policies. Referencing the Hans Christian Andersen children's tale The Emperor's New Clothes, Byrd said of the president: "the emperor has no clothes." Byrd further lamented the "sheep-like" behavior of the "cowed Members of this Senate" and called on them to oppose the continuation of a "war based on falsehoods."

Byrd accused the Bush administration of stifling dissent:

Of the more than 18,000 votes he cast as a senator, Byrd said he was proudest of his vote against the Iraq war resolution.^[68] Byrd also voted to tie a timetable for troop withdrawal to war funding.

Gang of 14[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

On May 23, 2005, Byrd was one of 14 senators (who became known as the "Gang of 14") to forge a compromise on the judicial filibuster, thus securing up and down votes for many judicial nominees and ending the threat of the so-called nuclear option that would have eliminated the filibuster entirely. Under the agreement, the senators retained the power to filibuster a judicial nominee in only an "extraordinary circumstance." It ensured that the appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive votes by the full Senate.

Other votes[link]

Byrd opposed the Flag Desecration Amendment, saying that, while he wanted to protect the American flag, he believed that amending the Constitution "is not the most expeditious way to protect this revered symbol of our Republic." As an alternative, Byrd cosponsored the Flag Protection Act of 2005 (S. 1370), a bill to prohibit destruction or desecration of the flag by anyone trying to incite violence or causing a breach of the peace, or who steals, damages, or destroys a flag on federal property, whether owned by the federal government or a private group or individual—can be imprisoned, fined or both. The bill did not pass.

In 2009, Byrd was one of three Democrats to oppose the confirmation of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner.^[69] After missing nearly two months while in hospital, Byrd returned to the Senate floor on July 21 to vote against the elimination of funding for the F-22 fighter plane.^[70]

Ratings groups[link]

Byrd received a 65-percent vote rating from the League of Conservation Voters for his support of environmentally friendly legislation.^[71] Additionally, he received a "liberal" rating of 65.5 percent by the National Journal—higher than six other Democratic senators.^[72]

In 2006, Byrd received a 67-percent rating from the American Civil Liberties Union for supporting rights-related legislation.^[73]

Health issues and death[link]

Byrd's health declined through 2008, including several hospital admissions.^{[74][75][76][77]}

On January 20, 2009, Senator Ted Kennedy suffered a seizure during Barack Obama's inaugural luncheon and was taken away in an ambulance.^[78] Byrd, seated at the same table, became distraught and was himself removed to his office. Byrd's office reported that he was fine.^[79] On May 18, Byrd was admitted to the hospital after experiencing a fever due to a "minor infection",^[80] prolonged by a staphylococcal infection.^[81] Byrd was released on June 30, 2009.^[82]

Byrd's final hospital stay began on June 27, 2010 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax County, Virginia.^[83][84][85] Robert Byrd died at approximately 3 a.m. EDT the next day at age 92 from natural causes.^[86]

United States President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin and members of Congress attended the memorial service for Byrd at the State Capitol in Charleston, WV, on July 2, 2010.

Vice President Joe Biden recalled Byrd's standing in the rain with him as Biden buried his daughter when Biden had just been elected to the Senate. He called Byrd "a tough, compassionate, and outspoken leader and dedicated above all else to making life better for the people of the Mountain State."^[87] President Barack Obama said, "His profound passion for that body and its role and responsibilities was as evident behind closed doors as it was in the stemwinders he peppered with history. He held the deepest respect of members of both parties, and he was generous with his time and advice, something I appreciated greatly as a young senator."^[88] Senator Jay Rockefeller, who had served with Byrd since 1985, said, "I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone."^[89] Former President Jimmy Carter noted, "He was my closest and most valuable adviser while I served as president. I respected him and attempted in every way to remain in his good graces. He was a giant among legislators, and was courageous in espousing controversial issues."^[90]

On July 1, 2010 Byrd lay in repose on the Lincoln Catafalque in the Senate chamber of the United States Capitol, becoming the first Senator to do so since his first year in the Senate, 1959. Byrd was then flown to Charleston, West Virginia where he lay in repose in the Lower Rotunda of the West Virginia State Capitol. A funeral was held on July 2, 2010 on the grounds of the State Capitol where Byrd was eulogized by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Governor Joe Manchin, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Congressman Nick Rahall, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and former President Bill Clinton. After the funeral services in Charleston, his body was returned to Arlington, Virginia for funeral services on July 6, 2010 at Memorial Baptist Church.^[91] After the funeral in Arlington, Byrd was buried next to his wife Erma at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, although family members have stated that both the senator and Mrs. Byrd will be reinterred somewhere in West Virginia once a site is determined.^[91][92][93]

The song Take Me Home, Country Roads was played at the end of the funeral in a bluegrass fashion as his casket was being carried back up the stairs and into the West Virginia State Capitol Building.

On September 30, 2010 Congress appropriated $193,400 to be paid equally among Sen. Byrd's children and grandchildren, representing the salary he would have earned in the next fiscal year; a common practice when members of Congress die in office.^[94][95]

Reaction to death[link]

Multiple political figures issued statements following Byrd's death^[96]:

• Vice President of the United States (and therefore President of the Senate) Joe Biden: "A very close friend of mine, one of my mentors, a guy who was there when I was a 29-year-old kid being sworn into the United States Senate. Shortly thereafter, a guy who stood in the rain, in the pouring rain, freezing rain outside a church as I buried my daughter and my wife before I got sworn in ... We lost the dean of the United States Senate, but also the state of West Virginia lost its most fierce advocate and, as I said, I lost a dear friend.
• Democratic Senator Chris Dodd: He [Robert Byrd] never stopped growing as a public official, and was a man who learned from his mistakes. He was more than a friend and colleague. He was a mentor to me and literally hundreds of legislators with whom he served over the past five decades.
• Republican Senator Lindsey Graham: Senator Byrd was a valuable ally and worthy opponent. He will be viewed by history as one of the giants of the Senate.
• Republican Senator Orrin Hatch: On the issues, we were frequent opponents, but he was always gracious both in victory and defeat. This is a man who earned his law degree while serving in the Senate, and who had a prodigious knowledge of ancient and modern history.
• President Barack Obama: He [Robert Byrd] was as much a part of the Senate as the marble busts that line its chamber and its corridors. His profound passion for that body and its role and responsibilities was as evident behind closed doors as it was in the stemwinders he peppered with history. He held the deepest respect of members of both parties, and he was generous with his time and advice, something I appreciated greatly as a young senator.
• Senate Republican leader Mitch McConell: Senator Byrd combined a devotion to the U.S. Constitution with a deep learning of history to defend the interests of his state and the traditions of the Senate. We will remember him for his fighter's spirit, his abiding faith, and for the many times he recalled the Senate to its purposes.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Throughout his historic career in the House and Senate, he never stopped working to improve the lives of the people of West Virginia. While some simply bore witness to history, Senator Byrd shaped it and strove to build a brighter future for us all.
• Fellow Democratic Senator from West Virginia Jay Rockefeller: Senator Byrd came from humble beginnings in the southern coalfields, was raised by hard-working West Virginians, and triumphantly rose to the heights of power in America. But he never forgot where he came from nor who he represented, and he never abused that power for his own gain.

Succession[link]

Despite Byrd's periods of ill health, his succession was not immediately clear.^[97] Initially, West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant announced that there would be no special election to fill the Senate vacancy until 2012.^[98] However, after an opinion by West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw that a special election could occur in 2010, the West Virginia Legislature passed a law allowing for an August 2010 special primary election and a November 2, 2010 special general election to fill Byrd's remaining term.^[99][100] In the interim, Governor Joe Manchin appointed former aide and fellow Democrat Carte Goodwin to Byrd's seat.^[101] Manchin was elected to the seat on Nov 2, 2010.

In popular culture[link]

Byrd had a prominent role in the 2008 Warner Bros. documentary Body of War directed by Phil Donahue. The film chronicles the life of Tomas Young, paralyzed from the chest down after a sniper shot him as he was riding in a vehicle in Iraq. Several long clips of Byrd show him passionately arguing against authorizing the use of force in Iraq. Later in the movie, Byrd has a one-on-one interview with Tomas Young in Byrd's Senate office, followed by a shot of Byrd walking beside the wheelchair-bound Young as they leave the Capitol.^{[citation needed]}

A fictionalized version of Byrd, then the Senate Majority Leader, was a character in the Jeffrey Archer novel Shall We Tell the President?.^{[citation needed]}

Byrd was an avid fiddle player for most of his life, starting in his teens when he played in various square dance bands. Once he entered politics, his fiddling skills attracted attention and won votes. In 1978 when Byrd was Majority Leader, he recorded an album called U.S. Senator Robert Byrd: Mountain Fiddler (County, 1978). Byrd was accompanied by Country Gentlemen Doyle Lawson, James Bailey, and Spider Gilliam. Most of the LP consists of bluegrass music. Byrd covers "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die," a Zeke Manners song, and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". He has performed at the Kennedy Center, on the Grand Ole Opry and on Hee Haw. He occasionally took a break from Senate business to entertain audiences with his fiddle.^{[citation needed]} He stopped playing in 1982 when the symptoms of a benign essential tremor had begun to affect the use of his hands.^[102]

Byrd appeared in the Civil War movie Gods and Generals in 2003 along with former Virginia senator George Allen. Both played Confederate States officers.^[103]

The Creekdippers album Political Manifest features a song entitled 'Senator Byrd Speech' in honor of Senator Robert C. Byrd.^{[citation needed]}

Published writing[link]

• 1989. The Senate, 1789–1989, Vol. 1: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate. ISBN 0-16-006391-4
• 1991. The Senate, 1789–1989, Vol. 2: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate. ISBN 0-16-006405-8
• 1993. The Senate, 1789–1989: Historical Statistics, 1789–1992, Vol. 4. ISBN 0-16-063256-0
• 1995. The Senate, 1789–1989: Classic Speeches, 1830–1993, Vol. 3. ISBN 0-16-063257-9
• 1995. Senate of the Roman Republic: Addresses on the History of Roman Constitutionalism. ISBN 0-16-058996-7
• 2004. Losing America: Confronting A Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. ISBN 0-393-05942-1
• 2004. We Stand Passively Mute: Senator Robert C. Byrd's Iraq Speeches. ISBN 0-9755749-0-6
• 2005. Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields. ISBN 1-933202-00-9
• 2008. Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for our Next Leader. ISBN 0-312-38302-9

See also[link]

	Government of the United States portal
	Biography portal

• List of places named after Robert Byrd

References[link]