Ted Kennedy FBI Files: White Supremacists' Threats Zeroed in on Surviving Brother

Newly released FBI files on the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy show he was a magnet for threats by white supremacist groups unhappy with the pro-civil rights stance of the Democratic Party and the three Kennedy brothers during the 1960s.

In FBI documents, a bureau informant reported that during a visit to the National Socialist White People's Party Headquarters in Arlington, Va., an unnamed woman said the senator "deserves the same as his brothers got." (Further context is unavailable from the report.)

The woman went on to say that "the white people have to work like dogs so the government can take our money from us" and "How much more of this is it going to take before the white man fights back?"

Kennedy's name was also mentioned in a 1970 memorandum concerning threats against him and Sens. George McGovern and J. William Fulbright and Rep. Morris "Mo" Udall. The memo stated that the subject "believed that Congressman Udall was a threat to society because of his political beliefs and [the subject] desired that one of the three Senators identified in the caption should be assassinated to avenge the death of the former leader of the American Nazi Party."

A 1969 letter accused Kennedy of "working for the votes of Blacks just as [his] brothers did." The writer said, "Your brother Bobbie [sic] had the army put it to allow one Negro to enter Miss U – That man [redacted] is now immensely wealthy even tho [sic] never worked to earn a dollar – How did he get this wealth? ... Do you care? No -- as long as you get the votes of blacks."

Other FBI files contained evidence of threats against Ted Kennedy from members of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups.