In this May, 1985 file photo, a Philadelphia policeman is seen on a rooftop as flames rise from a row of burning homes beyond, in Philadelphia. The fire started when police dropped a bomb onto the house of the militant group MOVE, on May 13, 1985 and fire spread throughout the area. A day after Philadelphia’s health commissioner was forced to resign over the cremation of partial remains thought to belong to victims of a 1985 bombing of the headquarters of a Black organization, the city now says those victims’ remains were never destroyed. City officials told the victims’ family Friday, May 14, 2021 that a subordinate had disobeyed Health Commissioner Thomas Farley’s 2017 order to dispose of the remains. (AP Photo/George Widman, File)
With MOVE Reimagined, those most impacted by the May 13, 1985, MOVE bombing hope to create a lasting memorial to those they lost while clearing up some misconceptions.
By Denise Clay-Murray
If you’re a resident of the Delaware Valley of a certain age, chances are that you remember exactly where you were on May 13, 1985.
On that day 40 years ago, a standoff between members of the back to nature group MOVE and the Philadelphia Police sent to evict them from the home they lived in at 6221 Osage Avenue in Cobbs Creek, ended when a bomb was dropped on a rooftop bunker at the house. Eleven people — five of them children — were killed in the subsequent fire, which went on to burn down most of the 6200 block of Osage Avenue.
In 2017, students at the Jubilee School in West Philadelphia put together the research needed to obtain an historical marker commemorating the MOVE confrontation. The marker currently stands near Osage Avenue on Cobbs Creek Parkway. It is not located in front of the house, which has since been rebuilt.
On Tuesday, the year-long commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the MOVE confrontation will come to an end with MOVE Reimagined. The event will be held from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. at the Harold Prince Theater in the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, located at 3680 Walnut Street. In addition to remarks from State Sen. Anthony Williams (D-8th Dist.) and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier (D-3rd Dist.), there will be a performance from gospel artist Jermaine Dolly.
Mike Africa Jr.
Photo: Facebook
The purpose of the gala is to raise awareness and funds for the creation of a MOVE House Museum, which would feature the stories of those impacted, community-based programs that use art, music and storytelling designed to promote truth, education and and reconciliation and healing and wellness initiatives for families impacted by incarceration.
For Mike Africa Jr., who was 6 when the MOVE confrontation happened, creating MOVE Reimagined is a chance to help Philadelphians make sense of something that the city has been grappling with for far too long.
“I founded MOVE Reimagined because it has always been my life’s purpose to help people in Philadelphia and beyond understand the true history of the MOVE family and to capture the vision of what we can build moving forward,” he said. “For nearly 40 years, this legacy has been a reminder of the need for truth, justice, and healing. MOVE Reimagined is about a vision of healing through memory and action — honoring the past while building a future grounded in peace, family, and collective restoration.”
The SUN spoke to Africa about the gala, MOVE Reimagined, and what Philadelphians get right — and get wrong — about the events that led up to the May 13, 1985, confrontation.
SUN: Thank you for giving us some of your time today, Mike. The last time that you and I talked, you mentioned that you were trying to buy the house at 6221 Osage Ave. What is the status of that plan?
MA: I was able to buy the house, which had been paid off before the bombing. But to turn it into a MOVE memorial, I have to own it outright. That’s the reason for the gala.
SUN: For a lot of people, the prospect of a memorial to an incident like the MOVE bombing might be hard to stomach because of what we’ve all been taught about the group. What did Philadelphians get wrong about MOVE back then? What are we still getting wrong now?
MA: People believe that if they’d moved, the bomb would have never been dropped. They terrorized people in the neighborhood. They were filthy people. They ate dogs, they ate cats, they ate their own babies. They used their kids as shields, you know. What I’m trying to do is concentrate on the positive aspects of the organization, on the positive aspects of its history, on the positive aspects of the things that MOVE did and reimagine those negative things and try to find a way to make, you know, something good out of the things that were so bad. That’s what MOVE Reimagined is about. It’s not about trying to cover up the bad things MOVE did or diminish them or downplay them. It’s about learning from this whole situation.
SUN: I saw on the press release that there are going to be a few elected officials coming to the event to speak. Are you surprised that you’ve gotten this support?
MA: Not at all. I was definitely not surprised that [Councilmember] Jamie Gauthier agreed to participate. She’s been a supportive person, not just in not just when it comes to MOVE, but look at how she’s tackling these issues with the school closures. Look at how she supported the students that were working to get the historical markers for the [University City] townhomes. She’s been a council member for the people, and when it comes to the pollution in Chester, she’s just been a trailblazer in that regard. So, no, I wasn’t surprised to see her at all. Senator Anthony Hardy Williams, I was not surprised to see him involved at all. I think many politicians feel compelled to get involved, but I think MOVE frightened some people. So, to see the people that came forth, these are people that I’ve known for years. And I think we share the same feeling about the egregiousness of dropping a bomb.
SUN: What can people expect to see at the gala?
MA: There’s going to be a performance by a gospel singer named Jermaine Dolly. He was recommended by our event planning team, and when I saw some of his work, some of his social media, some of his spiritual connections and some of his Biblical activities, it felt like a good fit.
SUN: Well, thank you for giving us some of your time today. We really appreciate it.
MA: Thank you.
Tickets for the MOVE Reimagined Gala are $188.58 for VIP admission, which includes a pre-event reception and $108.55 for just the gala. You can get tickets on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/move-reimagined-benefit-gala-tickets-1984905698376.
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