MOVE

MOVE is a black liberation group founded in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Africa (born Vincent Leaphart). The name is not an acronym. The group lived in a communal setting in West Philadelphia, abiding by philosophies of anarcho-primitivism.[1] The group combined revolutionary ideology, similar to that of the Black Panthers, with work for animal rights.

MOVE
Leader(s)John Africa
Foundation1972
Active regionsPhiladelphia
Ideology
Major actions1978 and 1985 fatal shootouts with police officers
StatusActive

The group is particularly known for two major conflicts with the Philadelphia Police Department. In 1978, a standoff resulted in the death of one police officer, and injuries to several other people. Nine members were convicted of killing the officer and received life sentences.

In 1985, another confrontation ended when a police helicopter dropped a bomb onto the roof of the MOVE compound, a townhouse that was previously located at 6221 Osage Avenue.[2][3] The resulting fire killed six MOVE members, and five of their children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood.[4] The police action was strongly condemned. The MOVE survivors later filed a civil suit against the city and the police department and were awarded $1.5 million in a 1996 settlement.[5] Other residents displaced by the destruction of the bombing filed a civil suit against the city and in 2005 were awarded $12.83 million in damages in a jury trial.

Origins

The group's name, MOVE, is not an acronym.[6] John Africa chose this name to say what they intended to do. Members intend to be active because they say, "Everything that's alive moves. If it didn't, it would be stagnant, dead."[7] When members greet each other they say "on the MOVE".[7]

When founded in 1972, the group was originally called the Christian Movement for Life. Its founder, John Africa, was functionally illiterate.[8] He dictated his thoughts to Donald Glassey, a social worker from the University of Pennsylvania, and created what he called "The Guidelines" as the basis of the communal group.[1] Africa and his mostly African-American followers wore their hair in dreadlocks, as popularized by the Caribbean Rastafari movement. MOVE advocated a radical form of green politics and a return to a hunter-gatherer society, while stating their opposition to science, medicine, and technology.[9]

They identify as deeply religious and advocate for life. MOVE members believe that as all living beings are dependent, their lives should be treated as equally important. They advocate for justice that is not always based within institutions. MOVE members believe that for something to be just, it must be just for all living creatures.[7] As John Africa had done, his followers changed their surnames to Africa to show reverence to what they regarded as their mother continent.[5][10][11]

In a 2018 article about the group, Ed Pilkington of The Guardian described their political views as "a strange fusion of black power and flower power. The group that formed in the early 1970s melded the revolutionary ideology of the Black Panthers with the nature- and animal-loving communalism of 1960s hippies. You might characterise them as black liberationists-cum-eco warriors."[12] He noted the group also functioned as an animal rights advocacy organization.

He quoted member Janine Africa, who wrote to him from prison: “We demonstrated against puppy mills, zoos, circuses, any form of enslavement of animals. We demonstrated against Three Mile Island and industrial pollution. We demonstrated against police brutality. And we did so uncompromisingly. Slavery never ended, it was just disguised.”[12]

John Africa and the MOVE members lived in a commune in a house owned by Glassey in the Powelton Village section of West Philadelphia. As activists, they staged bullhorn-amplified, profanity-laced demonstrations against institutions that they opposed, such as zoos, and speakers whose views they opposed. MOVE activities were scrutinized by law enforcement authorities,[13][14] particularly under the administration of Mayor Frank Rizzo, a former police commissioner known for his hard line against activist groups.[12]

1978 shoot-out

In 1977, in response to a series of complaints made by neighbors of the MOVE members living at the Powelton Village house at 311 N 33rd Street, the police under Mayor Frank Rizzo obtained a court order demanding MOVE members vacate. MOVE members agreed to vacate and surrender their weapons if the police released their members who were held in city jails.[15]

Nearly a year later, police came to a standoff with members of the community who had not left.[16][17] When the police attempted to enter the house, shooting erupted. Philadelphia Police Department officer James J. Ramp was killed by a shot to the back of the neck. MOVE representatives claimed that he was facing the house at the time and they denied MOVE's responsibility for his death, insisting that he was killed by fire from fellow police officers.[18] Prosecutors alleged that MOVE members fired the fatal shot and charged Sims Africa and the other eight with collective responsibility for his death.

According to a 2018 article in The Guardian,

"Eyewitnesses, however, gave accounts suggesting that the shot may have come from the opposite direction to the basement, raising the possibility that Ramp was accidentally felled by police fire. Move members continue to insist that they had no workable guns in their house at the time of the siege. Several months earlier, in May 1978, several guns – most of them inoperative – had been handed over to police at the Move house; however, prosecutors at the trial of the Move Nine told the jury that at the time of the August siege there had been functioning firearms in the house."[19]

The standoff lasted about an hour before MOVE members began to surrender.

The MOVE 9

The nine members of MOVE charged with third-degree murder for Ramp's death became known as the MOVE 9. Each was sentenced to a maximum of 100 years in prison. They were Chuck, Delbert, Eddie, Janet, Janine, Merle, Michael, Phil, and Debbie Africa.

In 1998, at age 47, Merle Africa died in prison.[20] Seven of the surviving eight members first became eligible for parole in the spring of 2008, but they were denied. Parole hearings for each of these prisoners were to be held yearly from that time.[21][22] In 2015, at age 59, Phil Africa died in prison.[23]

The first of the MOVE 9 to be released was Debbie Sims Africa on June 16, 2018.[19] Debbie Sims Africa, who was 22 when sentenced, was released on parole and reunited with her 39-year-old son, Michael Davis Africa, Jr. She gave birth to him a month after she was imprisoned, and he was taken from her a week later.[19] The release of Debbie Sims Africa renewed attention on members of MOVE and those Black Panthers who remain imprisoned in the US from the period of the 1960s and 1970s; there were at least 25 still in prison as of June 2018.[19]

On October 23, 2018, Michael Davis Africa, the husband of Debbie Sims Africa, was released on parole.[24] In May 2019, Janine and Janet Africa were released on parole after 41 years of imprisonment.[25] On June 21, 2019, Eddie Goodman Africa was released on parole.[26] Delbert Orr Africa was granted parole on December 20, 2019 and released January 18, 2020.[27] The last of the MOVE 9 either to be paroled or to die behind bars was Chuck Sims Africa who was released on parole on February 7, 2020 after 41 years of imprisonment.[26][28]

Delbert Orr Africa died of cancer at home on June 16, 2020.[29]

1985 bombing

6221 Osage Ave
Location of the MOVE house, bombed in 1985 by the police, within Philadelphia

In 1981 MOVE relocated to a row house at 6221 Osage Avenue in the Cobbs Creek area of West Philadelphia. Neighbors complained to the city for years about trash around their building, confrontations with neighbors, and bullhorn announcements of sometimes obscene political messages by MOVE members.[30][31] The bullhorn was broken and inoperable for the three weeks prior to the police bombing of the row house.[31]

The police obtained arrest warrants in 1985 charging four MOVE occupants with crimes including parole violations, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making terrorist threats.[4] Mayor Wilson Goode and police commissioner Gregore J. Sambor classified MOVE as a terrorist organization.[32] Police evacuated residents of the area from the neighborhood prior to their action. Residents were told that they would be able to return to their homes after a twenty-four hour period.[15]

On Monday, May 13, 1985, nearly five hundred police officers, along with city manager Leo Brooks, arrived in force and attempted to clear the building and execute the arrest warrants.[15][32] Nearby houses were evacuated.[3] Water and electricity were shut off in order to force MOVE members out of the house. Commissioner Sambor read a long speech addressed to MOVE members that started with, "Attention MOVE: This is America. You have to abide by the laws of the United States." When the MOVE members did not respond, the police decided to forcibly remove the 13 members from the house,[15] which consisted of eight adults and five children.

There was an armed standoff with police,[6] who lobbed tear gas canisters at the building. A 90-minute gunfight ensued, in which one officer was bruised in the back by gunfire.[33] Police used more than ten thousand rounds of ammunition before Commissioner Sambor ordered that the compound be bombed.[33] From a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter, Philadelphia Police Department Lt. Frank Powell proceeded to drop two one-pound bombs (which the police referred to as "entry devices"[32]) made of FBI-supplied Tovex, a dynamite substitute, targeting a fortified, bunker-like cubicle on the roof of the house.[30]

The resulting explosions ignited a fire from fuel for a gasoline-powered generator stored in the rooftop bunker,[11] killing eleven of the people in the house (John Africa, five other adults, and five children aged 7 to 13). The fire spread and eventually destroyed approximately sixty-five nearby houses. Although firefighters had earlier drenched the building prior to the bombing, after the fire broke out, officials said they feared that MOVE would shoot at the firefighters, so held them back.[30][33][34]

Goode later testified at a 1996 trial that he had ordered the fire to be put out after the bunker had burned. Sambor said he received the order, but the fire commissioner testified that he did not receive the order.[35] Ramona Africa, one of the two MOVE survivors from the house, said that police fired at those trying to escape.[36]

Aftermath

Goode appointed an investigative commission called the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (PSIC, aka MOVE Commission), chaired by William H. Brown, III. Sambor resigned in November 1985; in a speech the following year, he said that he was made a "surrogate" by Goode.[37]

The MOVE Commission issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that "Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable."[38] Following the release of the report, Goode made a formal public apology.[39] No one from the city government was criminally charged in the attack. The only surviving adult MOVE member, Ramona Africa, was charged and convicted on charges of riot and conspiracy; she served seven years in prison.[40]

In 1996 a federal jury ordered the city to pay a $1.5 million civil suit judgment to survivor Ramona Africa and relatives of two people killed in the bombing. The jury had found that the city used excessive force and violated the members' constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.[35] In 1985 Philadelphia was given the sobriquet "The City that Bombed Itself".[41][42]

In 2005 federal judge Clarence Charles Newcomer presided over a civil trial brought by residents seeking damages for having been displaced by the widespread destruction following the 1985 police bombing of MOVE. A jury awarded them a $12.83 million verdict against the City of Philadelphia.[43]

2002 shooting of John Gilbride

After John Africa's death, his widow, Alberta, married John Gilbride, Jr. Together they had a child, Zackary Africa, circa 1996. The couple divorced in 1999. Gilbride no longer supported MOVE and resettled in Maple Shade, New Jersey. Alberta Africa was living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey with their son John Zachary Gilbride, as he was legally known.[44]

On September 10, 2002, in the course of their bitter custody dispute, Gilbride testified in court that MOVE had threatened to kill him.[45] The court granted Gilbride partial custody of Zackary, allowing him unsupervised visits.

On September 27, 2002, shortly after midnight and prior to Gilbride's first visitation date with Zackary, an unknown assailant shot and killed Gilbride with an automatic weapon as he sat in his car parked outside his New Jersey home.[44] Investigators did not name a suspect and the Burlington County Police did not release ballistics information.[46]

The case remains unsolved. A MOVE spokeswoman initially said that the U.S. government had assassinated Gilbride in order to frame MOVE.[46] His ex-wife Alberta Africa denied that the murder had occurred. She said in 2009 that Gilbride "is out hiding somewhere".[46] Tony Allen, an ex-MOVE member, says that MOVE murdered Gilbride.[46]

In 2012 the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Gilbride had told friends and family that he had recorded incriminating evidence in a notebook as security against a "hit" by MOVE. Gilbride said he had placed the notebook inside a locker for safekeeping. The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office declined to follow up on the report.[47]

Current activities

Ramona Africa acts as a spokesperson for the group. She has given numerous speeches at events in the United States and other countries. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist and activist, was convicted and originally sentenced to death for the unrelated 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. In 2011 his sentence was commuted to life. He had reported on MOVE and expressed his support for them. MOVE continues to advocate for Abu-Jamal's release as well as for that of imprisoned MOVE members. MOVE regards them all as political prisoners.

Michael Moses Ward, known in MOVE as Birdie Africa, was the only child to survive the 1985 bombing. He lived with his father afterward and did not remain involved with MOVE. He died in 2013 in an accidental drowning.[48]

In June 2020 MOVE member Delbert Africa died.[49]

In media

Representation in other media

On the 25th anniversary of the 1985 bombing, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a detailed multimedia website containing retrospective articles, archived articles, videos, interviews, photos, and a timeline of the events.[50][51]

Documentaries

The Bombing of Osage Avenue (1986) is a documentary by author Toni Cade Bambara and Louis Massiah that provides context for the bombing by using the history of the Cobbs Creek community. It focuses on the bombing's effects on community residents who did not belong to MOVE. The film also uses footage of the hearings of the MOVE commission. It premiered on WHYY-TV, Philadelphia's public broadcasting station.[52]

Let the Fire Burn (2013) is a documentary about MOVE composed largely of archival footage. It was directed and produced by Jason Osder.[53][54]

See also

References

  1. "MOVE | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia". philadelphiaencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  2. "Let The Fire Burn | Kanopy". freelibrary.kanopy.com. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  3. "I'm From Philly. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying To Make Sense Of The MOVE Bombing". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  4. Trippett, Frank (1985-05-27). "It Looks Just Like a War Zone". TIME. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  5. "CNN – Philadelphia, city officials ordered to pay $1.5 million in MOVE case". cnn.com. June 24, 1996.
  6. Account of 1985 incident from USA Today.
  7. "About MOVE – On a Move". onamove.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  8. James, Louise Leaphart (2013-09-26). John Africa. books.google.com. ISBN 9781483637884. Retrieved 2015-04-17.
  9. "An inauspicious beginning". philly.com. philly.com. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  10. John Anderson and Hilary Hevenor, Burning Down the House: MOVE and the tragedy of Philadelphia, W.W. Norton & Co., 1987, ISBN 0-393-02460-1
  11. 25 Years Ago: Philadelphia Police Bombs MOVE Headquarters Killing 11, Destroying 65 Homes, democracynow.org. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  12. Pilkington, Ed (31 July 2018). "A siege. A bomb. 48 dogs. And the black commune that would not surrender". The Guardian.
  13. "'Let The Fire Burn': A Philadelphia Community Forever Changed". npr.org. NPR. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  14. "Survivor Remembers Bombing Of Philadelphia Headquarters". philadelphia.cbslocal.com. CBS Philly. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  15. Demby, Gene (May 13, 2015). "I'm from Philly 30 years later I'm still trying to make sense of the MOVE bombing". NPR. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  16. The video from all the documentaries was shot from 310 N 33rd Street facing East-Northeast
  17. "Nose to Nose: Philadelphia confronts a cult". TIME magazine. August 14, 1978. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
  18. Pilkington, Ed (25 May 2019). "Move 9 women freed after 40 years in jail over Philadelphia police siege". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  19. Pilkington, Ed (Jun 18, 2018). "'This is huge': black liberationist speaks out after her 40 years in prison". The Guardian.
  20. Move Death Merle Africa's Demise Labeled `Suspicious' Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 March 1998
  21. Emilie Lounsberry (February 28, 2008). "MOVE members due for parole hearing". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  22. Lounsberry, Emilie (June 5, 2008). "MOVE members denied parole". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. B06.
  23. Roberts, Sam (2015-01-14). "Phil Africa, of Black-Liberation Group Move, Long in Prison, Dies at 59". The New York Times. p. A21.
  24. D'Onofrio, Michael (23 October 2018). "Another MOVE 9 member tied to 1978 case leaves prison". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  25. Pilkington, Ed (2019-05-25). "Move 9 women freed after 40 years in jail over Philadelphia police siege". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  26. Pilkington, Ed (2019-06-23). "Move 9 member Eddie Goodman Africa released from prison after 41 years". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  27. Pilkington, Ed (2020-01-18). "Move 9 member Delbert Orr Africa freed after 42 years in prison". the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  28. Pilkington, Ed (2020-02-07). "Chuck Sims Africa freed: final jailed Move 9 member released from prison". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  29. Dean, Mensah M. (June 16, 2020). "Delbert Africa, MOVE member released from prison in January after 41 years, has died". Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  30. Frank Trippett (May 27, 1985). "It Looks Just Like a War Zone". TIME magazine. Retrieved 2009-02-15. The Move property on Osage Avenue had become notorious for its abundant litter of garbage and human waste and for its scurrying rats and dozens of dogs. Bullhorns blared forth obscene tirades and harangues at all times of day and night. MOVE members customarily kept their children out of both clothes and school. They physically assaulted some neighbors and threatened others.
  31. Abu-Jamal, Mumia; Bin Wahad, Dhoruba; Shakur, Assata (1993). Still Black, Still Strong. South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e). p. 128. ISBN 9780936756745.
  32. Shapiro, Michael J (June 17, 2010). The Time of the City: Politics, Philosophy and Genre. Routledge. p. 108. ISBN 9781136977879.
  33. Stevens, William K. (14 May 1985). "Police Drop Bomb on Radicals' Home in Philadelphia". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  34. Brian Jenkins (April 2, 1996). "MOVE siege returns to haunt city". CNN.com. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  35. Terry, Don (1996-06-25). "Philadelphia Held Liable For Firebomb Fatal to 11". The New York Times. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  36. "Philadelphia MOVE Bombing Still Haunts Survivors". NPR. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  37. I Was Expendable, Sambor Learned After Move Fiasco
  38. "Philadelphia Special Investigation (MOVE) Commission Manuscript Collection". Archived from the original on 2009-01-11. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  39. Goode Offers His Apology For Move
  40. Odom, Maida. "Ramona Africa Given Jail Term For Siege Role". philly.com. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  41. G. Shaffer; C. Tiger; D. L. Root (2008). Compass American Guides Pennsylvania.
  42. Larry Eichel (May 8, 2005). "The MOVE Disaster: May 13, 1985". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  43. Douglas Martin (August 28, 2005). "CLARENCE NEWCOMER, 82, LONGTIME FEDERAL JUDGE," South Florida Sun Sentinel.
  44. Mulvihill, Geoff (September 26, 2002). "Man in Custody Battle Shot to Death". Edwardsville Intelligencer. Associated Press. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  45. Kinney, Monica Yant (October 23, 2003). "Talks of threats before slaying". The Philadelphia Inquirer via Religion News blog.
  46. Kinney, Monica Yant (September 19, 2012). "Murder of ex-MOVE member remains a mystery". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  47. Kinney, Monica Yant (September 19, 2012). "A clue hidden in a lost locker?". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  48. Davies, Dave. "Ruling on What Killed 'Birdie Africa,' MOVE's Lone Child Survivor", NBC Philadelphia, 12 June 2014.
  49. Moselle, Aaron (June 16, 2020). "Delbert Africa, longtime MOVE member recently released from prison, has died". WHYY. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  50. "MOVE 25 years later". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
  51. Rickey, Carrie (October 20, 2013). "A haunting look at when Phila. burned". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  52. Massiah, Louis (Director) (1986). The Bombing of Osage Avenue. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Scribe Video Center.
  53. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119463/
  54. Rapold, Nicolas (October 1, 2013). "Dropping In On Tragedy, As If You Were There". The New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2016.

Further reading

  • Richard Kent Evans, MOVE: An American Religion. Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 9780190058777.
  • John Anderson and Hilary Hevenor, Burning Down the House: MOVE and the tragedy of Philadelphia, W.W. Norton & Co., 1987, ISBN 0-393-02460-1.
  • Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia versus MOVE, (1994) University of Chicago Press
  • Johanna Saleh Dickson; Move: Sites of Trauma (Pamphlet Architecture 23) (2002) Princeton: Architectural Press
  • Toni Cade Bambara, The Bombing of Osage Avenue, Philadelphia: WHYY. DVD OCLC 95315483
  • Margot Harry, Attention Move! This is America (1987), Chicago: Banner Press, ISBN 0-916650-32-4
  • Maurantonio, Nicole (2014). "Archiving the Visual: The Promises and Pitfalls of Digital Newspapers". Media History. 20 (1): 88–102. doi:10.1080/13688804.2013.870749.
  • Michael Boyette & Randi Boyette, Let it Burn! (1989) Chicago: Contemporary Press, ISBN 0-8092-4543-4
  • Ramona Africa (Contr. Author). This Country Must Change: Essays on the Necessity of Revolution in the USA (Arissa Media Group, 2009) ISBN 978-0-9742884-7-5

News media

Primary sources

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