April 22, 1976

I started this project with a vague idea about exploring the political and racial strife that wracked Boston in the 1970s to better understand of the anger and frustration in American culture today.

As I read about that period of history in the city I call home, I zeroed in on the  attack on the Suffolk County Courthouse on April 22, 1976. The bombing had vanished from the public memory, but it was a dramatic example of the roots and unintended consequences of political violence.

What mix of background and experience produces an armed rebel in a democracy? Why does an activist decide to build a bomb? Who ultimately pays the price when they set it off?