Editing MOVE Organization

'''MOVE Organization''' was a radical Black liberation group founded in Philadelphia in 1972 that became the center of two violent confrontations with city authorities. The group, originally called the Christian Movement for Life, combined elements of Black nationalism, anarchism, environmentalism, and communal living under the leadership of John Africa (born Vincent Leaphart). MOVE members rejected modern technology, wore their hair in dreadlocks, adopted the surname "Africa," and lived communally in ways that brought them into conflict with neighbors and authorities. The first confrontation, in 1978 at MOVE's Powelton Village headquarters, resulted in the death of a police officer and imprisonment of nine MOVE members. The second, in 1985 at MOVE's Osage Avenue home in West Philadelphia, ended catastrophically when police dropped a bomb on the house, igniting a fire that killed eleven people—including five children—and destroyed sixty-one homes. The MOVE bombing remains one of the most traumatic events in Philadelphia's modern history, raising fundamental questions about the use of force by police and the value placed on Black lives.<ref name="anderson">{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=John |last2=Hevenor |first2=Hilary |title=Burning Down the House: MOVE and the Tragedy of Philadelphia |year=1987 |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York}}</ref>

== Origins and Ideology ==

MOVE was founded by John Africa, a charismatic figure with little formal education who developed a distinctive ideology combining distrust of technology, rejection of institutional authority, and belief in the sanctity of all life. His teachings, compiled in a document called "The Guidelines," advocated raw food diets, rejection of medicine, and reverence for nature. MOVE members lived communally, homeschooled their children, and rejected the conventional lifestyle that they believed imprisoned most Americans. The group's practices—including keeping numerous animals, composting food waste outdoors, and amplifying revolutionary speeches through loudspeakers—brought them into conflict with neighbors who found their presence disruptive and unsanitary.<ref name="boyette">{{cite book |last=Boyette |first=Michael |last2=Boyette |first2=Randi |title=Let It Burn: MOVE, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Confrontation that Changed a City |year=1989 |publisher=Contemporary Books |location=Chicago}}</ref>

The group attracted members, mostly African American, who found meaning in John Africa's teachings and community in MOVE's collective life. Members took the surname "Africa" and adopted an oppositional stance toward authorities they viewed as oppressors. MOVE's confrontational style—including aggressive rhetoric and willingness to physically resist police—distinguished it from other Black organizations and made conflict increasingly likely. Critics viewed MOVE as a cult whose members had surrendered individual judgment to John Africa; supporters saw them as principled resisters of an unjust system. The truth likely included elements of both.<ref name="anderson"/>

== Powelton Village Confrontation ==

By the mid-1970s, MOVE's Powelton Village headquarters had become a source of persistent conflict with neighbors and authorities. The city sought to remove MOVE from the property, citing health and building code violations. MOVE fortified the house and refused to leave. A prolonged standoff ensued, with police surrounding the property while negotiations failed to produce resolution. On August 8, 1978, police attempted to forcibly evict MOVE members. In the confrontation, Officer James Ramp was killed by gunfire; MOVE members claimed police fired the shots, while authorities blamed MOVE. Nine MOVE members were convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to thirty to one hundred years in prison—sentences that critics considered excessive and politically motivated.<ref name="boyette"/>

The 1978 confrontation established patterns that would recur in 1985: MOVE's fortification of property, the city's determination to remove them, failed negotiations, and ultimate resort to force. The imprisonment of the "MOVE 9" became a continuing grievance for remaining members and supporters, who maintained that the convictions were unjust and that police, not MOVE, had killed Officer Ramp. The 1978 conflict did not end MOVE; surviving members relocated and continued their activities, setting the stage for the more catastrophic confrontation that would follow.<ref name="anderson"/>

== Osage Avenue ==

By 1985, MOVE members had established a new headquarters at 6221 Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek neighborhood. Neighbors complained about the same issues that had plagued Powelton Village: loudspeaker broadcasts, accumulated garbage, and behavior they found threatening. The city obtained warrants for the arrest of MOVE members on various charges. MOVE fortified the house, building a bunker on the roof. Mayor W. Wilson Goode, Philadelphia's first African American mayor, faced a crisis that would define his tenure. After failed attempts at negotiation, he authorized police action to execute the warrants.<ref name="boyette"/>

On May 13, 1985, police surrounded the MOVE house and began an assault that would end in catastrophe. Police fired thousands of rounds of ammunition into the house. When MOVE members did not surrender, police dropped a bomb—an improvised explosive device made from C-4 and Tovex—onto the rooftop bunker. The bomb ignited a fire. Firefighters, ordered not to extinguish the flames, watched the fire spread. By the time firefighting began, the blaze was out of control. Eleven MOVE members died, including John Africa and five children. The fire destroyed sixty-one homes in the surrounding neighborhood. The only adult survivor, Ramona Africa, was arrested and later convicted of riot and conspiracy.<ref name="anderson"/>

== Aftermath and Legacy ==

The MOVE bombing provoked national outrage and extensive investigation. A special commission appointed by Mayor Goode concluded that the decision to bomb the house was "reckless" and that the decision to let the fire burn was "unconscionable." No city official was criminally charged for the deaths, though the city eventually paid millions in damages to displaced residents and to survivors. The bombing damaged Goode's reputation and remains the defining event of his mayorship. For many Philadelphians, particularly African Americans, the bombing demonstrated that Black lives were expendable when they challenged authority.<ref name="boyette"/>

The MOVE bombing's legacy continues to affect Philadelphia. The destroyed homes were rebuilt, but some residents felt the reconstruction was inadequate. In 2021, it was revealed that remains of children killed in the bombing had been stored improperly at a city medical examiner's office and at the University of Pennsylvania, provoking renewed outrage and apologies. The city formally apologized for the bombing in 2021, forty years after the event. MOVE members who survived, including some of the "MOVE 9" who were eventually released from prison, continued their activism. The bombing remains a wound in Philadelphia's history—a reminder of how conflicts between authority and resistance can end in tragedy.<ref name="anderson"/>

== See Also ==
* [[Civil Rights Movement in Philadelphia]]
* [[Frank Rizzo Era]]
* [[West Philadelphia]]

== References ==
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{{#seo:
|title=MOVE Organization - Philadelphia's Most Tragic Confrontation
|description=The 1985 MOVE bombing killed 11 people and destroyed 61 homes when Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the radical group's West Philadelphia headquarters.
|keywords=MOVE bombing Philadelphia, MOVE organization, John Africa, Osage Avenue bombing, May 13 1985 Philadelphia, Wilson Goode MOVE, Philadelphia police bombing, MOVE 9
|type=Article
}}

[[Category:History]]
[[Category:20th Century]]
[[Category:Civil Rights]]
[[Category:Law Enforcement]]