I have a great deal of admiration for Sen. Robert Byrd in his current 'incarnation", but in his youth he was an active member of the KKK. I'm slow to condemn a senior citizen for what they did in their youth, unless I have reason to believe they did not grow over the years.
When I was in high school, I now remember, a teacher 'explained' to us that Paul Robeson's music could no longer be bought in the USA,, although he was a wonderful singer, "because he was a communist." At the time, I did not question why that was an absurd 'justification' for banning his music. Those who "named names" before HCUAA in the '50s were not teenagers, but I daresay some of them were as caught up in the anti-"communist" scare of the McCarthy era as a lot of us teenagers were and perhaps did not really see the light till years later.