Robert C. Byrd High School 4.36

Robert C. Byrd High School is a public school in Clarksburg, West Virginia.The school, which serves grades 9-12, is a part of Harrison County Schools.The school serves a vast majority of the city of Clarksburg, West Virginia, along with the towns of Nutter Fort, West Virginia and Stonewood, West Virginia. It is one of six public high schools in Harrison County. The school opened in 1995 as a consolidation of Washington Irving High School, which is now Washington Irving Middle School, and Roosevelt-Wilson High School. The student enrollment (as of 2008-09) is 880. The principal is Steve Gibson. The school's colors are blue and green, and their mascot is the eagle.The school's namesake is U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, who served from 1959 to 2010. He also served in the Ku Klux Klan.In the early 1940s, Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia.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." Byrd became a recruiter and leader of his chapter. When it came time to elect the top officer (Exalted Cyclops) in the local Klan unit, Byrd won unanimously.