The 40s compared to when the KKK were actually killing people compared to today when they do nothing? Really now? Did the people Byrd recruit to the Klan leave with him? My guess is going to be no. So therefore he would have blood on his hands. And the NCAACP? I think you mean NAACP mate. And okay? So what? The ancient pass? You make it sound like it predates the 1800s. You are aware 1940 was only 77 years ago, there's plenty of people from that time still kicking.
You're defending a man who said, “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side,” he vowed. “Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.” A man who tried filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and opposed the Voting RIghts Act of 1965. He also opposed the nomination of Thurgood Marshall who would be the Nation's first black Supreme Court justice. Racist don't change, they just get better at hiding it.