 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.As a young boy, Byrd had witnessed his adoptive father walk in a Klan parade in Matoaka, West Virginia.While growing up, Byrd had heard that "the Klan defended the American way of life against racemixers and communists".