Why? The Dems were and still are the ones drag feet on nearly every civil rights issue. Sheesh, that was ignorant.
If such a person subsequently repudiates those views, is there any hope of his being viewed as a decent sort?
I think it would depend on how they acted upon said views back when they still believed them. If they were simply snarky, yeah, maybe they could be seen as decent years down the road. If they did really really bad awful things, no.
Or will he forever be tarred with his earlier views?
Oh absolutely, whether he actively acted on them or not. It’d be the first thing opponents would throw in his face the second he said/did anything they didn’t like “well what does he know, he was in the Klan,” etc.
Is it even possible to sincerely believe in the inferiority of blacks as an adult and then equally sincerely have a change of heart? Or is the earlier view always there beneath the surface?
I believe it is possible to have a change of heart and truly be rid of the former views.
It all depends. If he remained a Democrat, like Lester Maddox and Robert Byrd, then he can be forgiven for his earlier racist views. If he switched to Republican, then he’s tarred forever.
Republican here. This is BS. I live in WV and the first thing discussed here when Byrd is mentioned is his former(present?) racism/Klan activity. He will never escape his reputation as a racist, ever, no matter how much pork he brings to this state, Democrat or not. The only reason he keeps getting re-elected is because he actually does something for West Virginia – we sort of have a love/hate thing going on with him. Yes, he’s a racist prick, but he’s been here forever and, well, he’s OUR racist prick. He may be our Senator till the day he dies, but people here certainly haven’t forgotten that he once wore sheets, nor do they like that about him. (Say what you want about West Virginia, this is one of the least racist states I’ve ever seen.)
I would think that 50 or 60 years ago it was probably a common thing for adults to change their thinking about race issues. During the Korean War when the Marine Corp desegregated there were generally glowing reports about the process. I’m sure that many men, placed in combat situations with men they wouldn’t know socially, reevaluated their attitudes. As people have pointed out it’s only ignorance that allows racism to persist and like mhendo many people have their perspective changed by new experiences and wonder how they held their earlier beliefs.