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Congress and WV Citizens Work to Save the Coal River

12/22/2015

 
​By Jody Brumage
“The national attention being focused on the mounting need for public outdoor recreational facilities holds great promise for the development of parklands in West Virginia.” - Senator Robert C. Byrd, August 28, 1962
​

West Virginia’s tourism industry, ignited by a number of major projects spearheaded by its congressional delegation in the 1960s and 70s, has become one of the largest components of the state’s economy today. In the past few months, we’ve highlighted a few of these projects, including Senator Byrd’s proposed Allegheny Parkway and Congressmen Harley O. Staggers, Sr. and Ken Hechler’s work for wilderness areas in the 1970s. Today, we are taking a look at another project initiated by West Virginia Congressman John Slack and Senator Byrd in the early 1960s: the proposed Coal River National Recreation Area.
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Congressman John Slack represented West Virginia in the U.S. Congress from 1959-1980.

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Turkish Arms Embargo - Part II

12/15/2015

 
By Jody Brumage

Senator Robert C. Byrd was elected Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate in January 1977 at the beginning of the 95th Congress. In his new position of power, Senator Byrd’s focus was not only on securing necessary federal aid for his home state of West Virginia, but also on national and international affairs which required the Senate to act.

Three years earlier, then Majority Whip Byrd voted in favor of imposing an embargo against U.S. ally Turkey following its invasion of the island nation of Cyprus in response to a cue led by Greek Cypriots. Claiming a violation of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, the Senate forced President Gerald Ford to accept the terms of the embargo, which he viewed as detrimental to any diplomatic solution to the conflict in Cyprus.
In Cyprus, the three years since the Turkish invasion saw the division of the island into two states: the Republic of Cyprus, controlled by the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, solely recognized by Turkey. In late 1974, the Republic of Cyprus had restored its leader, Archbishop Makarios III to power, but the tensions over the island territory continued to plague Cypriots in addition to global foreign policy.

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Processing Senator Byrd’s Photograph Collection

12/8/2015

 
By Jody Brumage
​

In the past few weeks, the Byrd Center archives staff has been at work processing the extensive photograph collection of Senator Robert Byrd. Spanning his entire life and career, the collection includes official images from the U.S. Senate, delegation trips, campaign events, project dedications, and family photographs. Numbering in the thousands of photographs, the collection will be a long-term process to rehouse, describe, and digitize.
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Sorting unlabeled photographs into boxes for each decade of Senator Byrd’s career.

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The Turkish Arms Embargo – Part I

12/1/2015

 
By Jody Brumage
​

In the 1970s, a coup d’état and subsequent military invasion of the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus entangled U.S. foreign policy and left Congress and two presidential administrations in the position of determining how the government would respond to the complex situation. In this two part blog post, we will investigate how the Senate responded to the initial invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and then how those actions were reconsidered later in the decade under Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd’s leadership.

The Republic of Cyprus was established to govern the island, inhabited by ethnic Greek and Turkish communities in 1960, placing the nations of Greece and Turkey in opposition over control of the new government. For over a decade, Greece sought to unite Cyprus under its policy of “enosis” (union of Greek communities living outside of Greece with the Greek state). These tensions boiled over into the July 15, 1974 coup d’état which overthrew President Makarios III and established a pro-union government. In response, Turkey invaded Cyprus on July 20, 1974 and in the coming weeks established the Turkish Republic of Cyprus, claiming the northern section of the island as its own territory.

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The Byrd Center advances representative democracy by promoting a better understanding of the United States Congress and the Constitution through programs and research that engage citizens.
© 2021 Robert C. Byrd Center for
​Congressional History and Education
  • Home
  • About
    • Latest News
    • Statement on Systemic Racism
    • Leadership
    • Our Partners
    • Parking and Directions
  • Education
    • People Powered 2023 Program
    • Educational Resources
    • Teacher Institute
    • Internship Program
  • Research
    • Congressional Collections >
      • Robert C. Byrd Congressional Papers
      • Harley O. Staggers, Sr. Congressional Papers
      • Harley O. Staggers, Jr. Congressional Papers
      • Scot Falkner CAO Papers
    • Blog
    • Digital Collections
    • Oral History Project
    • Plan a Visit to the Archives
    • Collecting Policy
  • Events
    • Voices of the Community series
    • Summer Fundraiser 2023
    • Forum on Pollution
    • Formidable - author event
    • Voices of the Community
    • Constitution Day
    • Past Events
  • Support Us
    • Friends of the Byrd Center
    • Name a Seat
    • Annual Report
  • Reservations
  • Login