The+MOVE+Organization

by Hannah, Ella, Cyrus, Jacob and Zion (grade 5) And Zayn, Ma’At, Madison, Ishtar and David (grade 6) MOVE is a revolutionary back-to-nature group which fought for animal rights, freedom from technology, and against police brutality and the system in Philadelphia. MOVE set themselves apart from other Civil Rights groups. MOVE members worshipped and obeyed their founding father, John Africa. They went through many tough times, with police always on their back.

John Africa’s original name was Vincent Leaphart. He changed his name to John Africa in the early 1970’s because he wanted to show that he was part of Africa. He was a radical man who was, in the eyes of MOVE members, a messiah. He was also a controversial leader who believed that by making an uproar and doing things the government found upsetting, he would make a change.

MOVE residents first started living together on 33rd and Pearl Street in West Philadelphia. The people belonging to MOVE lived a simple lifestyle because they thought that life should be natural, and they wanted to be free of technology and electricity. The MOVE children ate raw food like potatoes, carrots and tomatoes. Some of the children were malnourished. The MOVE members used a woodstove, had no electricity, and let farm animals, pets and rodents roam in their house and the neighborhood.

The culture of MOVE was part of the reason they got into trouble. The neighbors were getting furious because of MOVE’s loudness and pests, so they complained to the City Government. The police harassed members of MOVE, until most were arrested and released. They beat a mother holding a baby named Life, until the baby was dead. The police didn’t get arrested.

After the baby Life Africa was killed, MOVE members guarded their house for protection. They patrolled their side of the block with unloaded rifles. The neighbors felt threatened, so they called the police. Not all people were against MOVE. David Fattah, Dr. Walter Palmer and Father Paul Washington all tried to help avoid exactly what ended up happening to MOVE. But the courts ordered MOVE to leave the area within 90 days. The police tried to starve MOVE out, so they cut off their water, and barricaded them in. The police patrolled the block twenty four hours a day. MOVE protested by staying in their headquarters for the 90 day period. At that point the judge announced that MOVE had broken the agreement.

On August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered police to force MOVE to vacate their home. When the police surrounded their house, a shootout began. One policeman, Officer Ramp, was caught in the crossfire and he got killed. MOVE got blamed for the killing. The MOVE members finally came out of the house. One MOVE member, Delbert Africa, was beaten down to the ground by the police on live tv. He was then arrested. The police were not held accountable. Nine MOVE members got sent to prison for 30 to 100 years. After the shootout was over the police bulldozed the MOVE headquarters which was unconstitutional because MOVE still owned the house, and it was a crime scene.

After the tragedy on 33rd and Pearl Street, MOVE relocated their headquarters to a house on 61st and Osage Avenue, in the Cobbs Creek area of Philadelphia. When MOVE took their headquarters to Osage Avenue, they also brought their culture. They continued their lifestyle, including letting in rodents and other animals, feeding their children raw food, and worst of all broadcasting foul language at all hours. If you were a child living on Osage Avenue, it would be normal for you to be hearing profanity and verbal intimidation late at night. So the neighbors started complaining to the Mayor about the bullhorn messages, all the animals, and the compost piles being a health hazard. The neighbors did not know that the police were still on MOVE’s trail, and with the first Black mayor of Philadelphia, nobody expected what happened next.

On May 13th, 1985, a travesty occurred on the 6100 block of Osage Avenue. Mayor Wilson Goode told Police Commissioner Sambor to do what he had to do to arrest MOVE. The problem was that the police already had tensions with MOVE, and wanted revenge for the alleged murder of Officer Ramp. On the day before Mother’s day, on May 12th,police came to Osage Avenue and evacuated the block. They brought heavy machine guns, and the fire department sprayed water and tear gas into MOVE’s building. On May 13th, over 100 policemen went to MOVE’s stronghold. Their purpose: to flush out MOVE by any means necessary. The police used ruthless force, shooting 10,000 rounds into MOVE headquarters. The police were not using ordinary guns, but military weapons, even though young children were in the house.

At 5:37PM on May 13th, a State police helicopter dropped a CS/tovex bomb, also used for war, on the MOVE house. The bomb created a raging fire, and fire fighters were told by Police Commissioner Sambor not to stop the flames. They let it burn throughout the neighborhood for three hours. 61 homes were destroyed, which left over 250 people homeless. The MOVE members tried to escape from their house several times, but they were met with a barrage of gunfire from police officers. In the end, the only people who made it out were Ramona and Birdie Africa. Birdie was thirteen years old. Six adults and five children died. MOVE was a very tough group. They praised John Africa, and tried to make him proud. Starting with Rizzo, it was a tradition for the police to use brutality against MOVE. But MOVE never stopped living in their culture, no matter how much trouble they got into. In the end, MOVE members got bombed for living their own life in a way that harassed neighbors, and having their own religion. As the reporter Dave Lindorff said, “It’s a tragedy or a disaster when a fire destroys a home and children die. But when police bombed that building and killed children they knew were in it, it’s not a tragedy. It’s an atrocity.”



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Picture 2: http://www.life.com/image/52825292