The confected moral panic about terrorism from American university campuses to Irish rap groups occurs at a time when war is being declared on Black history while the ‘international rules based order’ covers up a genocide. (1)
As the then student activist H Rap Brown chided almost sixty years ago “Violence… is as American as cherry pie” so the manufactured outrage is rich in irony. (2) But of course the USA reconciles this with the fallacious narratives it tells itself. As academic Eddie Glaude opines:
“America is not unique in its sins as a country. We’re not unique in our evils to be honest with you. I think where we may be singular is our refusal to acknowledge them and the legends and myths we tell about our inherent goodness to hide and cover and conceal so we can maintain a kind of willful ignorance that protects our innocence.” (3)
In this regard then the Trump administration is not an outlier in the American narrative, it is in fact the quintessence of the American creed. We see this in the intransigence both Democrats and Republicans over reparations for the genocide of enslavement and all the atrocities committed since then. (4)
The two effectively combine in the 1919 Tulsa Massacre, where 10,000 whites were marshalled by the police and National Guard in a “coordinated, military-style attack” to loot, shoot, set ablaze and bomb the prosperous Greenwood area, also known as “Black Wall Street”, massacring hundreds of Afrikans. (5) Living survivors, of which there are now only two, Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109 have persistently been denied reparations up to including last year where a judge concluded: “simply being connected to a historical event does not provide a person with unlimited rights to seek compensation”. (6)
Perhaps some may perceive the Tulsa massacre through the lens of Jim Crow. But the ushering in of civil rights legislation in the mid 1960s, supposedly bringing Jim Crow to a close end did not bring about an end of state brutality like COINTELPRO, which declared so-called “Black Nationalist Hate Groups” the “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country,” waging a murderous war against them, taking the lives of numerous activists. (7)
When the COINTELPRO activities were exposed in the Church Committee report of 1976, reforms, including an executive order banning political assassinations, were supposed to have been instituted. (8) If we look at the MOVE Organization, we know that the police in the “city of brotherly love” did not get the memo.
Founded by John Africa in Philadelphia in 1972, MOVE is a revolutionary Black organisation that advocates natural living and oneness with nature and all living things. All members take on the family name Africa. When MOVE members greet one another, they say “ON THE MOVE!” or “ONA MOVE!” This means to work, generate, and be active. MOVE’s principles put them squarely at odds with the local administration as in its first six years the police made 193 arrests of MOVE members and 93 subsequent court cases occurred. And there was also the killing of a three week old baby, Life Africa, Daughter of Janine and Phil Africa at the hands of the police 1976. (9)
There was a major escalation two years later when, under the pretext of complaints from neighbours, the city moved to evict the organization from their Powelton Village base. They resisted and in a move that epitomizes modern Zionism, toughguy Mayor Frank Rizzo, who once urged supporters to “vote white” in an upcoming election, authorised a fifty-six day blockade cutting off food and water. (10)
When this failed to dislodge the group they resorted to water canons then heavy artillery. In the melee a police officer was shot and killed, most likely from friendly fire but certainly not by MOVE members, according to witnesses and some officials. Nevertheless nine members were charged and convicted of murder and sentenced to thirty years to life. Two of the MOVE 9, Merle Africa and Phil Africa died in prison. The rest, Debbie Africa, Janet Africa, Janine Africa, Delbert Africa, Michael Africa, Chuck Africa and Edward Africa, served at least forty years behind bars and were released between June 2018 and February 2020. Delbert Africa and Chuck Africa have passed away since their release. (11)
Four years later MOVE relocated to 6221 Osage Avenue in the Cobbs Creek neighbourhood of West Philadelphia. The police repression did not stop. Smarting from a humiliating legal defeat at the hands of John Africa and aided by local media the police ramped up the nuisance neighbour narrative. Meanwhile under newly minted Black Mayor Wilson Goode the police obtained arrest warrants for four MOVE members in 1985, charging them with crimes such as parole violations, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making terrorist threats. In what would be seen to be a classic case of accusation as confession, the Mayor and police commissioner Gregore J. Sambor declared MOVE a terrorist organization. (12)
Things came to a head on May 13th 1985 when the police demanded MOVE leave the premises. When the order was defied, the house was flooded with deluge hoses, followed up with tear gas neither of which has the desired effect. If it wasn’t clear by this point, the police’s murderous intent was confirmed by their firing 10,000 rounds of ammunition in 90 minutes. When this didn’t work, they dropped a satchel bomb of Tovex TR2 and C-4 explosives. At the time C-4 was beyond the inventory of local police so the bombing really had a government seal. (13)
The police allowed the ensuing inferno to rage for an hour and a half before calling in fire fighters and as a result sixty-one homes across two blocks were destroyed. Eleven MOVE members perished, adults: founder John Africa, Raymond Africa, Conrad Africa, Frank Africa, Rhonda Africa and Theresa and children whose parents included the MOVE 9: Tree Africa, Netta Africa, Phil Africa, Delisha Africa, and Tomaso Africa,. There were just two survivors, adult Ramona Africa and Child Birdie Africa. No one has ever been held to account for the deaths. In fact, the only person punished as a result of events on May 13th 1985 was survivor Ramona Africa who served seven years for riot and conspiracy. The city did issue an apology on the 35th anniversary of the bombing in 2020. (14)
But even after harassment, miscarriage inducing beatings, trumped up charges and killings, they weren’t done with MOVE. In April 2021 it was reported that the remains of one, possibly two of the child victims of the 1985 bombing had been held in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton and were being used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course presented by an Ivy League professor. Then it was reported in November 2024 that more child remains, believed to be Delisha Africa, were ‘discovered’ at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Museum is an archaeology and anthropology museum. This is despite “despite repeated assurances” that all the remains from the bombing were returned to families. Those in the UK can see parallels with the case of Christopher Alder, where after he had died in their custody, the police gave the family the wrong body to bury while his was being used for police “training.” It was only discovered when the actual family of the buried person wanted to bury their loved one. (15)
On May 13th this year there will be a live 40 Year Remembrance of 1985 MOVE Bombing when the “victims speak truth after false imprisonment.” (https://www.youtube.com/live/jgX4Yvr2ljI)Today, views of John Africa vary from visionary to authoritarian but he certainly was a pioneer in what is today called the degrowth movement and other green, ecological movements. (16) In truth nothing that MOVE did warranted the heinous acts committed against them. When we consider that members spent between seven and forty-one years in prison for something that they categorically did not do and come out and still be active is a testament to their resilience to which we all owe a debt.
(1) Stephen M. Lepore (10/03/25) Trump’s chilling warning to ‘terrorist sympathizers’ as 60 colleges receive message on ‘anti-Semitic actions’. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14483583/donald-trump-warning-terrorist-sympathizers-colleges-anti-semitic.html; Hadley Barndollar (02/03/25) ‘My face was on the … truck’: Harvard report details climate of fear for pro-Palestine students. https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/05/harvard-report-doxxing-attacks-on-pro-palestine-students-damaged-campus-trust-student-well-being.html; Dorian Lynskey (01/05/25) Listen closely to the Kneecap furore. You’ll hear hypocrisy from all sides. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/kneecap-band-furore-hypocrisy-cancel-culture-free-speech; Robert Kuttner (15/04/25) Trump’s Orwellian Assault on Black History. https://prospect.org/politics/2025-04-15-trumps-orwellian-assault-on-black-history/; (2) Somdeep Sen (11/01/24) How can so many in the West so easily ignore genocide? https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/11/how-can-so-many-in-the-west-so-easily-ignore-genocide; Jake Sonnenberg (31/01/25) The Return of Genocide Denial. https://jacobin.com/2025/01/genocide-denial-israel-us-gaza
Somdeep Sen
(2) Nigel Jones (08/01/21) History shows that violence is ‘as American as cherry pie’. https://thecritic.co.uk/history-shows-that-violence-is-as-american-as-cherry-pie/; Robert Deis (27/07/24) As American as apple pie, cherry pie – and violence… https://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2024/07/as-american-as-apple-pie-cherry-pie-and-violence/
(3) Eddie Glaude (06/08/19) Blaming President Donald Trump Is Too Easy: This Is Us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKiB0APdxTo
(4) Meredith Conroy and Perry Bacon Jr. (14/07/20) White Democrats Are Wary Of Big Ideas To Address Racial Inequality. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/white-democrats-are-wary-of-big-ideas-to-address-racial-inequality/
(5) Kweku Larry Crowe & Thabiti Lewis (2021) The 1921 Tulsa Massacre: What Happened to Black Wall Street? Humanities: The Magazine for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Volume 42, Number 1. https://www.neh.gov/article/1921-tulsa-massacre; The Equal Justice Initiative (13/01/25) Justice Department Finds Tulsa Massacre Was a “Coordinated, Military-Style Attack”. https://eji.org/news/justice-department-finds-tulsa-massacre-was-a-coordinated-military-style-attack/
(6)Sam Cabral (12/06/24) Oklahoma court rejects Tulsa Massacre survivors suit. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmm8dnxz00o
(7) Virgie Hoban (18/01/21) ‘Discredit, disrupt, and destroy’: FBI records acquired by the Library reveal violent surveillance of Black leaders, civil rights organizations. https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/news/fbi
(8) Rahul D. Manchanda, Esq. (22/08/16) The Surreptitious Reincarnation of COINTELPRO with the COPS Gang-Stalking Program. https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2016/08/22/the-surreptitious-reincarnation-of-cointelpro-with-the-cops-gang-stalking-program/
(9) J.. Osder, (Director). (2014). Let the Fire Burn [Video]. The George Washington University.; Ed Pilkington (31/07/18) A siege. A bomb. 48 dogs. And the black commune that would not surrender. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/31/a-siege-a-bomb-48-dogs-and-the-black-commune-that-would-not-surrender
(10) Erika Solomon, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad & Saher Alghorra (04/05/25) As Gaza Siege Grinds On, Gazan Children Go Hungry and Patients Die. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/world/europe/israel-gaza-blockade-humanitarian-crisis.html; Pilkington. Op. cit.; Jake Blumgart (18/09/18) The Polarizing Mayor Who Embodied ‘Blue-Collar Conservatism’. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-18/was-philly-s-frank-rizzo-the-donald-trump-of-his-era
(11) Jacob Sullum (2021) 40 Years a Prisoner. https://reason.com/2021/03/19/40-years-a-prisoner/. According to the article Wilson Goode’, Rizzo’s successor as Mayor “doesn’t buy the official story, saying he believes the officer was hit by friendly fire.”; Black History Buff (23/02/23) Newsletter No 9 – The MOVE 9. https://steadyhq.com/en/blackhistory/posts/3dab8a6f-4316-48d8-aec8-d719e7c6984b
(12) Mumia Abu Jamal (05/05/17) Rochester, NY and the John Africa Trial. https://www.prisonradio.org/commentary/rochester-ny-and-the-john-africa-trial/; Black History Buff. Op, cit
(13) Empire Files (03/03/16) The MOVE Bombing – When Police Plotted to Exterminate a Family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-fQdGyPlSU; Michael Coard (16/05/23) Four decades later, embers of Philly’s MOVE bombing still smoldering. https://penncapital-star.com/commentary/four-decades-later-embers-of-phillys-move-bombing-still-smoldering-michael-coard/
(14) Vice (11/11/20) The Day Police Dropped a Bomb On Philadelphia | I Was There. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X03ErYGB4Kk&t=612s; Melissa N. Stein (13/05/22) “The Blood of Innocent Children”: Race, Respectability, and “True” Victimhood in the 1985 MOVE Police Bombing. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/10999949.2021.2003630?scroll=top&needAccess=true; Mildred Europa Taylor (30/08/21) The resilient story of Ramona Africa, the last remaining survivor of the 1985 Philly bombing of Black activists. https://face2faceafrica.com/article/the-resilient-story-of-ram; ona-africa-the-last-remaining-survivor-of-the-1985-philly-bombing-of-black-activists; Gray Hall (14/05/20) 11 Philadelphia City Council members issue apology on 35th anniversary of MOVE bombing. https://6abc.com/move-bombing-philadelphia-osage-avenue/6179659/
(15) Ed Pilkington (23/04/21) Bones of Black children killed in police bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/22/move-bombing-black-children-bones-philadelphia-princeton-pennsylvania; The Associated Press and NBC10 Staff (14/11/24) More human remains from Philadelphia’s 1985 MOVE bombing found at Penn Museum . https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/human-remains-1985-move-bombing-penn-museum/4028590/; Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio (01/04/19) Christopher Alder 21 years on – Proof that the police are above the law? https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/christopher-alder-21-years-on-proof-that-the-police-are-above-the-law-010419
(16) Anthony T. Fiscella (2022) Forgotten pioneers in degrowth: John Africa and the MOVE
Organization. https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/5123/galley/5034/view/
Are you ONA MOVE? A study in American Terrorism
1) What place does the MOVE bombing have in USA history?
2) How has USA changed in the last 40 years?
3) Is Black activism still “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”?
4) What is John Africa’s legacy?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Sis. Janine Africa: Has been a MOVE member since 1973 and is Minister of Education. Sis. Janine has had two children killed by the state and spent over years as a political prisoner for a crime she didn’t commit. She remains a committed Freedom Fighter.
Sis. Ramona Africa: joined MOVE in the late seventies in the wake of the MOVE 9 trial. Sis the Minister of Communication for the MOVE Organization and an organizer with the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. She is also the only living survivor of the1985 MOVE bombing, when the FBI and Philadelphia police dropped two C-4 bombs on her organization’s home, killing 11 people after which she spent seven years as a political prisoner.
Sis. Janet Africa: is one of the MOVE 9, who was railroaded for a crime she didn’t commit and spent 41 years in prison for. She was released in 2019 and remains an active member of the organisation.
Bro. Eddie Africa: joined MOVE in 1973 and remains a member to this day. He is also one of the MOVE 9, framed by the authorities spending 41 years in prison. He was released in 2029.
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