The incredible story of MOVE, the revolutionary Black civil liberties
group that Philadelphia police bombed in 1985, killing 11
civilians—by one of the few people born into the organization,
raised during the bombing's tumultuous aftermath, and entrusted with
repairing what was left of his family.
Before police dropped a bomb on a
residential neighborhood on May 13, 1985, few people outside
Philadelphia were aware that a Black-led civil liberties organization
had taken root there. Founded in 1972 by a charismatic ideologue
called John Africa, MOVE’s mission was to protect all forms of life
from systemic oppression, drawing ideology from the Black Panther
Party, PETA, and Earth First. The organization emerged in an era when
Black Philadelphians suffered under devastating policies brought by
President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs and Mayor Frank Rizzo’s
overtly racist police surveillance. MOVE members lived together in a
commune of West Philadelphia row houses and took the surname Africa
out of admiration for the group's founder.
But in MOVE's lifestyle, city officials
saw threats to their status quo. Their bombing of the MOVE commune
shocked the nation and made international news. Eleven people were
killed, including five children. And the City of Brotherly Love
became known as the City That Bombed Itself.
Among the children most affected by the
bombing was Mike Africa Jr. Born in jail following a police attack on
MOVE that led to his parents’ decades-long incarcerations, Mike was
six years old and living with his grandmother when the commune was
bombed. In the ensuing years, Mike sought purpose in the ashes left
behind. He began learning about the law as a teenager and became
adept at speaking and inspiring public support with the help of other
MOVE members. In 2018, at age 40, he finally succeeded in getting his
parents released from prison.
On a Move is one of the most
unimaginable stories of injustice and resilience in recent American
history. But it is not only one of tragedy. It is about coming-of-age
for a young activist, the strong ties of family, and, against all
odds, learning how to take indignities on the chin and to work within
the very system that created them. At once a harrowing personal
account and an impassioned examination of racism and police violence,
On a Move testifies to the power of love and hope, in the face
of astonishing wrongdoing.