The Politically Motivated Firebombing at John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site

The sidewalk outside John Fitzgerald Kennedy Historic Site as first responders arrived at the scene of the firebombing.

FBI, “Kennedy Fire Investigation – (9/8/75) Report,” Folder 14, Box 4, JFK NHS, Resource Management Records, 1963-2003, Series I. Management/Administrative Files; A. Central Files, A2615-A8215, Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters NHS

On September 8, 1975, a still unknown individual threw a firebomb through the back door of John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, the historic home that preserves and commemorates the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy. The bomb smashed through the glass panel of the home’s backdoor and ignited in the historic kitchen and hallway. The fire did major damage to the home, resulting in over a year of closure for repairs and restoration. While the culprits were never caught and the case remains officially unsolved, the motivation behind the attack can be theorized. September 8 was the first day of school in Boston, and the second year of the highly contentious effort to desegregate Boston’s public schools. At the time Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who would serve in the U.S. Senate from 1962 until 2009, was early in his career as a senator for Massachusetts and was a supporter of integration through a program known commonly as "busing." First responders to the fire saw the words "Bus Teddy" spray painted on the sidewalk, indicating that the perpetrators likely attacked the site due to their dissatisfaction with Kennedy’s support for busing and integration. Although Senator Ted Kennedy was not born at 83 Beals Street, the historic home preserves and commemorates the birthplace of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, making it a property tied to the Kennedy family legacy and, by extension, Senator Ted Kennedy.

Boston in the 1970s

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education established that formal segregation of public schools by race was unconstitutional. While Massachusetts never had codified formal racial segregation, it was the de facto policy supported by the Boston School Committee’s districting choices. Schools that served Black children were badly underfunded, receiving only about two-thirds of funding received by schools in White districts. This continued into the 1960s, sparking activism and protests in Black neighborhoods where parents and community members demanded equal treatment for their children and schools.

In the summer of 1963, Senator Royal Bolling Sr. of Roxbury, Massachusetts proposed a so-called Racial Imbalance Law which would mandate school desegregation, but this first iteration died in legislature. Then, in 1964, Governor Endicott Peabody appointed a Racial Imbalance Advisory Commission, asking the committee to make a thorough, independent study of racial imbalance in the public schools of Massachusetts. This Commission found that there were 55 “racially imbalanced” schools in Massachusetts, and 45 of them were in Boston alone. The group proposed redistricting and “mutual transfers” that were relatively geographically close so that children were not being bused across the city. However, the Boston School Committee refused to even discuss the idea. By February 1965, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) prepared to file a lawsuit against the school committee on behalf of parents. However, later that year, a version of Bolling’s 1963 bill was signed into law by Governor John Volpe.

National Student Coalition Against Racism protest in Boston demanding the desegregation of Boston schools.

African American Boycott, February 26, 1964. James Fraser photograph collection, Northeastern University, Boston.

Black parents began to organize more broadly after the passage of the Racial Imbalance Act, founding the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) in 1966, which enabled Black students to travel to surrounding suburban schools. Black parents also partnered with the NAACP to compel the Boston School Committee to integrate the city’s schools, filing a lawsuit, Morgan v. Hennigan, against the committee in 1972 for its ongoing refusal to comply with the state’s Racial Imbalance Act. On June 21, 1974, Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. issued the order in Morgan v. Hennigan, mandating that Boston desegregate its public schools by means of busing White students to predominantly Black schools, and Black students to predominantly White schools.

Anti-busing rally in South Boston.

Spencer Grant. Anti-busing rally at Thomas Park, South Boston. 1975. Web. Accessed Mar 07, 2024. <https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98mr666>.

Ethnic working-class White enclaves throughout Boston exploded with opposition to this order. Parents began to organize opposition groups, protests, and school boycotts. One of the defining aspects of Senator Ted Kennedy’s early years as a senator was his staunch support for busing and school integration. Senator Kennedy faced severe criticism from the largely anti-busing Irish American population. The Kennedys themselves were descendants of nineteenth century Irish Catholic immigrants to Boston and had several generations of prominent Boston businessmen and politicians in their family. To many, the Kennedy family symbolized Irish American success in the United States. Many in these communities felt betrayed by Senator Kennedy for supposedly going against Irish American political roots and interests by supporting school integration. He was often booed and threatened at speeches and protests during this time. The most notable incident of this was at a protest organized by the group Restore our Alienated Rights (ROAR) held at Government Center Plaza in downtown Boston at which Senator Kennedy spoke. News from the time reported that “The intensity of emotions generated here by the busing issue was reflected in the violent reaction against Senator Kennedy, who had gone to the rally to urge calm. The majority of the crowd was from predominantly Irish American and solidly Democratic neighborhoods of the city, where the Kennedys are normally well respected."

Senator Ted Kennedy at the Restore our Alienated Rights (ROAR) anti-busing protest.

United Press International. September 10, 1974. Web. Accessed Mar 7, 2024.

When Senator Kennedy went to the podium to speak, he was jeered off the stage as protestors threw rocks, eggs, and tomatoes. After being unable to speak, the senator sought refuge in the nearby John F. Kennedy Federal Building. Protesters followed, eventually even breaking a glass panel of the building’s wall, likely due to hurled rocks aimed at him. While many cities faced similar problems throughout the process of integration, anti-busing protests in Boston were among the most volatile and violent. Kennedy endured threats against himself as well as his family members but did not compromise his support for school integration and desegregation.

Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of racist violence against Black protestors at Government Center Plaza in Downtown Boston.

"The Soiling of Old Glory" April 5, 1976, during the Boston busing desegregation protests. Stanley Forman/Boston Herald American.

Political cartoon referencing the firebombing of John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site.

September 10, 1975. Boston Herald American.

The Firebombing

On September 8, 1975, a fire sensor in the back hallway of John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site alerted authorities to a fire. First responders were quickly able to put it out, but the use of an accelerant meant that a portion of the house, mainly the historic kitchen, was damaged. Police and journalists talked to neighbors who provided their eyewitness accounts. One neighbor described hearing a loud crash next door. He ran outside and saw the perpetrators wearing matching work jackets, covering their heads and faces, and running toward their Chevy Impala before driving away. Another neighbor recounted to journalists that he began to douse the fire with water himself as he waited for firefighters to arrive saying “I remembered a garden hose at the side of the house…I grabbed it and turned it on…I could put some water on the side and keep the flames from going up the wall. I stayed there until the fire department came. They said I helped to contain the blaze."

"It was a disgrace," said Victor Jacobs, 21, a salesman who lived on Stedman Street directly behind the Kennedy House. "It was an affront to the people of the country…those who did this are a menace to the public." The damage to the first-floor historic kitchen area of the house was extensive. National Park Service Superintendent Russell W. Berry Jr. said much of the damage was confined to the back of the house, "in the kitchen and hall.” Michael Johnston, a supervisory technician with the National Park Service, assessed the situation shortly after the firebombing saying ''everything will have to be taken out, scrubbed, cleaned, refinished.”

Senator Ted Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy walking through the JFK birthplace at 83 Beals Street on its opening day as a historic site, May 29, 1969.

Cecil Stoughton. National Park Service, 1969.

Superintendent Berry continued to tell reporters that the site would be fully restored "with a lot of work from a lot of different professional people and craftsmen." While he spoke, workers were carrying out pieces of furniture for refinishing. "One thing that was probably completely lost was the ice box in the back hallway," Berry said. This, he added, was a "period piece" that could not be replaced. "All of the christening garments worn by all the Kennedy children up to John Jr. might be "permanently marked," Berry continued and "some photos were damaged, but they can be replaced with negatives." National Park Service spokesman Thomas L. Mercer said that word of the incident was passed along to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy’s mother who was responsible for the original restoration of the home in the 1960s. She made no public comment.

Senator Ted Kennedy was asked about the situation at the site and said the following: "My concern is with the safety and wellbeing of the children of Boston, I am enormously relieved that phase 2 desegregation has been done without danger or harm to the children. I have a secondary interest- like any person- in the preservation of property. There was a sentimental attachment for me and the members of my family to the house.” Senator Kennedy was also integral to the initial 1960s restoration of the home, though he himself never lived there. He recommended and encouraged his mother to restore and donate the home to the National Park Service and he was later present at its dedication in 1969. It was considered likely that the association of Senator Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family legacy with the site were the reason it was targeted for attack.

The Process of Restoration

Estimates of the cost for the restoration of the home varied widely from different journalistic sources. Initial reports claimed a $30,000 cost, while later reports indicate a number closer to $100,000. Regardless, the restoration proved challenging for the National Park Service for a variety of reasons. The interior of the kitchen, the back entry hall, stairs, and the hall to the basement had to be replaced entirely. All the plaster was removed from the walls and ceilings, and all woodwork was too damaged to be salvaged. Surprisingly, many of the original Kennedy artifacts, which were concentrated in the front dining room of the home, and connected to the historic kitchen, had evaded damage, excluding one glass that was broken.

Much of the rest of the house was severely damaged by smoke. Costs for cleaning photographs, linens, curtains, and blinds, and costs for the replacement of wallpaper, floors, and carpets—all installed or reinstalled in the house for less than a decade—were extreme. Many of the textiles in the house that came from Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy were terribly damaged by smoke. Among the most significant items damaged was the bassinet, a family heirloom that had been used by President Kennedy and his siblings. While it was successfully cleaned, the blue satin ribbon attached to it had to be replaced. Other items had to be replaced completely, such as the icebox and stove.

Certain historical elements of the house proved difficult to restore or replace. For example, the walls in the kitchen had originally been plastered using a technique that required horsehair. After the firebombing, horsehair had to be shipped from New Hampshire for the work, and park staff had to reach out to a retired National Park Service contractor who was the only known individual familiar with the technique to replaster the walls. The kitchen provided other obstacles, like the rare, beveled glass that was used in the back door that had been smashed by the thrown firebomb. Additionally, throughout the course of restoring the kitchen, X-Ray scans done by architectural experts found period objects from the room that had been covered by later owners. These scans primarily revealed a built-in storage unit from the period when the Kennedy’s lived in the home that was discovered behind drywall.

The restoration of the home less than a decade prior had been spearheaded by the President's mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, with the assistance of interior designer Robert Luddington. The National Park Service reached out to Mrs. Kennedy and Mr. Luddington for approval to restore the rediscovered built-in storage unit in the kitchen, which was approved. The original radiators throughout the home had been severely damaged as well, leading to the need for period appropriate replacements. Then park Superintendent Russell W. Berry Jr. listed his own phone number on a newspaper ad in The Brookline Chronicle, soliciting the community for donations or information on any period radiators of various sizes that could be acquired for use in the historic home.

The site faced continued delays to its expected reopening date due to ongoing difficulties in the restoration process. Reporting from local newspapers listed updates to the site and the various estimated reopening dates that were given to journalists. The earliest reports stated that the site would reopen in January of 1976, which was pushed back several times until the official reopening date that was settled upon was December 18, 1976. Despite the continued delays and over a year of closure, visitation soon returned to pre-closure levels.

Conclusion

The firebombing of 83 Beals Street in September of 1975 can be hypothesized to have been a political act of violence meant to intimidate Senator Ted Kennedy. In the end, no one was injured, and while some of the objects in the collection were fire-damaged, the house was repaired and reopened to the public. Senator Kennedy continued to fight for civil rights causes in the United States Senate until his death in 2009. The results of busing were largely mixed and the violent protests that ensued have left the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with a complicated historical legacy that is still being evaluated.