On a MOVE: Philadelphia’s Notorious Bombing and a Native Son’s Lifelong Battle for Justice

Africa, with the help of D. Watkins (Black Boy Smile: A Memoir in Moments), presents a combination memoir and history of MOVE, the revolutionary Black civil liberties group founded in 1972 in Philadelphia by Africa’s great uncle John Africa. MOVE’s mission was to end oppression for all living beings—animals as well as humans—and its members lived together in a commune of West Philadelphia row houses. The group’s environmentalism predated groups like PETA and the Earth Liberation Front, while their ideology of liberation and anti-imperialism was inspired by the Black Panther Party. Some former members reportedly called MOVE a cult and alleged that their children weren’t allowed to attend schools and that young girls were forced to marry and have children. But Mike Africa Jr.’s memoir focuses on the revolutionary potential of MOVE and the reaction it incited in Philadelphia. It opens with the author’s memories of the 1985 Mother’s Day bombing of the MOVE compound, in which the Philadelphia police destroyed 60 houses and killed 11 people, both adults and children. Wilson Goode, who was the mayor of Philadelphia at the time of the bombing, has since apologized, and the city has paid a settlement. Africa also discusses growing up separated from his parents, who were incarcerated for 40 years after being convicted in 1978 of the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. Africa was born in his mother’s prison cell and raised by his grandmother to become an activist and public speaker. He finally succeeded in getting his parents paroled in 2018.