MOVE Philadelphia
EPISODE DETAILS
Written and Researched by Sarah Steel
Music by Joe Gould
Edited by Matt Brazel
January 18th, 2023
1 hr 05 mins 54 secs
Season 5
Season 5 presenting partner:
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
MOVE Philadelphia made headlines in 1978, when police and MOVE members ended up in a prolonged siege and a gunfire exchange that left a police officer dead. They hit the headlines again in 1985, when a confrontation with the authorities became even more deadly after an explosive device was dropped on their property. The events led many to understand the organisation as a Black liberation group who were the victims of a racist system. The latter is hardly debatable, but credible stories from a multitude of former members portray MOVE as never truly being about Black liberation at all. Instead, they characterise it as a cult.
EPISODE LINKS
What the survivors of MOVE deserve — by Kevin Price, Leaving MOVE blog, 22 October 2021
Help Maria Start Over After MOVE — GoFundMe fundraiser for Maria Hardy, formerly Maria Africa, to help with general life expenses
Help June (Pixie) and kids resettle in hiding — GoFundMe fundraiser for June Stokes, formerly Pixie Africa, and her children to help with general life expenses
Move: An American Religion — by Richard Kent Evans, Oxford University Press, 2020
Who was John Africa? — by Craig R. McCoy, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 January 1986
The Invention of John Africa — by Kevin Price, Leaving MOVE blog, 15 September 2021
Reimagining MOVE: Revolutionary Black humanism and the 1985 bombing — thesis by Joseph E. Cranston, Rowan University, 5 January 2021
This Huckster Preached Himself Into the Pokey — by Cecilia Rasmussen, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2022
Nothing but a Northern Lynching: The Death of Fred Hampton Revisited — by Susan Rutberg, HuffPost, 18 March 2010
Free The Move 9 August 8 1978 Attacked By Philadelphia Police #BlackAugust — statement from The Move Organization, 8 August 2017
Eyewitness to explosion of frustration, death — by Kitty Caparella, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 May 2010
My life in MOVE: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — On a Move with Mike Africa Jr., 26 August 2021
Let The Fire Burn — directed by Jason Osder, 2013
IN RE: CITY OF PHILADELPHIA LITIGATION. (Three Cases) — United States Third Circuit decisions, FindLaw, accessed January 2022
A Tragic History A Lingering Hope: 32 Years After the MOVE Bombing, One Man Reflects — by Naila Francis, Opera Philadelphia, 5 September 2017
Police Drop Bomb on Radicals’ Home in Philadelphia — by William K. Stevens, The New York Times, 14 May 1985
"It Looks Just Like a War Zone" — by Frank Trippett, TIME, 24 June 2001
MOVEing Beyond Anti-State to Anti-Civ: Black Lives Matter and the MOVE Organization Through the Critical Environmental Justice Lens — by Gillian Moise, Environmental Justice Vol. 15, Number 1, 2022
Out of prison after 41 years, MOVE member Delbert Africa rails against ‘unjust’ criminal justice system — by Mensah M. Dean, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 21 January 2020
Last member of MOVE freed on parole in death of officer — by Robert Moran, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 February 2020
After 42 years in prison, MOVE member Delbert Orr Africa wins his release — by Grace Dickinson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 January 2020
I'm From Philly. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying To Make Sense Of The MOVE Bombing — by Gene Demby, NPR Morning Edition, 13 May 2015
Grand Jury Clears Everyone In Fatal Philadelphia Siege — by William K. Stevens, The New York Times, 4 May 1988
Goode Offers His Apology for MOVE — by William K. Stevens and The New York Times, The Morning Call, 10 March 1986
A siege. A bomb. 48 dogs. And the black commune that would not surrender — by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, 31 July 2018
Tommy Oliver On His Documentary About 1978 MOVE Standoff In Philadelphia — by Ari Shapiro, All Things Considered, NPR, 21 December 2020
Delbert Africa, longtime MOVE member recently released from prison, has died — by Aaron Moselle, WHYY, PBS, 16 June 2020
When I was mayor, Philadelphia bombed civilians. It's time for the city to apologise — W Wilson Goode, The Guardian, 10 May 2020
Philadelphia City Council formally apologizes for MOVE bombing 35 years ago — by Daryl Bell, Philadelphia Tribune, 12 November 2020
MOVE Resolution — City Council Philadelphia, November 2020
Leaving MOVE Group Statement — Leaving MOVE blog, Kevin Price, 2 July 2021
Father grieves as cold case simmers — by Monica Yant Kinney, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 26 September 2006
What Does Man's Death Mean For MOVE? — by Walidah Imarisha, Black World Today, 1 October 2002
This video is Tom Morris confronting members of the radical MOVE cult in Philadelphia about a murder they are suspected of — Tom Morris Jr., Vimeo, uploaded 26 October 2011
Life Inside MOVE: Former supporters offer a window into the secretive group — by Monica Yant Kinney, Philly.com, 19 September 2004
MOVE Members Publicly Leave Group Citing Abuse, Death Threats, and Corruption — press release by former MOVE members, Leaving MOVE blog, 2 July 2021
Former MOVE members are speaking out about abusive behavior within the organization — by Michael Burnley, Billy Penn, 4 August 2021
An Insider’s View of Live within MOVE — by Hank Klibanoff, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 22 May 1985
Disenchanted Move members have quit the Black liberation group — by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, 25 September 2021
Bones of Black children killed in police bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course — by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, 23 April 2021
Sex and Sexuality Within MOVE: The Testimony of Maria Hardy — Leaving MOVE blog, 9 July 2021
Don't Cancel MOVE. Tell the Truth. — by Maiga Milbourne, Leaving MOVE blog, 16 July 2021
MOVE Has Nothing To Do With Liberation — by Kevin Price, Leaving MOVE blog, 12 July 2021
‘What we have out there is a war’: The 35th anniversary of the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia — by Deb Kiner, Penn Live, 13 May 2020
MOVE ‘Beat the Hell Out of Him’ — Philadelphia Daily News, 6 March 1978
A Bloody Precedent — by Tony Allen, The Anti-MOVE/Mumia Blog, 20 March 2005
MOVERr's Death- William Whitney Smith death - Murder or Suicide? — by Kitty Caparella, Philadelphia Daily News, 5 December 1979
M-1 and the Many Faces of MOVE — by Kevin Price, Leaving MOVE blog, 31 July 2021
MOVE, Cults, and Stone Soup — by Kevin Price, Leaving MOVE blog, 27 November 2022
Community Accountability in the Wake of the MOVE Reckoning — by Maiga Milbourne, Leaving MOVE blog, 11 July 2021
Statement from June Stokes (Pixie) - July 16, 2021 — Leaving MOVE blog, 16 July 2021
Historical Document: Letter to Osage Avenue Residents — Leaving MOVE blog, posted 25 September 2021
Tragedy and its Aftermath — by Kevin Price, Leaving MOVE blog, 26 September 2022
Let It Burn: MOVE, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Confrontation That Changed a City — by Michael Boyette, Randi Boyette, 2013
The MOVE Bombing: An Oral History — by Victor Fiorillo, Philadelphia magazine, 26 March 2010
The Long Shadow of the MOVE Fire — by John L. Puckett, West Philadelphia Collaborative History, accessed January 2023
Ex-MOVE members say they were raised in a ‘cult’ where abuse and homophobia ran rampant — by Jason Nark The Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 August 2021