![]() In 1978, MOVE engaged in a 15-month standoff after then-Mayor Frank Rizzo, notorious for a volatile relationship with black residents and activist groups, ordered the group to be removed from their home. Members frequently had run-ins with authorities. They maintained a complicated relationship with Philadelphia residents some sympathized with their mission, while others found their lifestyle to be disruptive. ![]() In nonviolent but disruptive demonstrations, members protested at zoos, pet stores, and political rallies the group believed in composting, homeschooling, and a diet of raw foods, and spoke out against war and police brutality. Members lived communally and described themselves as a family, changing their last names to Africa out of reverence for their founder and for the continent. MOVE was founded in 1972 and still exists today, though its membership numbers are unknown. Members of MOVE gather in front of their house in the Powelton Village neighborhood of Philadelphia in 1978. Its creator, John Africa, born Vincent Leaphart, was a West Philadelphia native and Korean War veteran whose ideology combined black revolutionary ideas with environmental and animal rights, as well as a back-to-nature movement. MOVE, not an acronym, was a political and religious organization whose principles were anti-government, anti-technology, and anti-corporation. In my opinion, everyone who was an adult in the city failed that day. “The story is a parable of sorts it’s a parable of how the unthinkable comes to happen,” said Jason Osder, the director of Let the Fire Burn, a documentary about the bombing. ![]() ![]() The show of force, unjustified to many, solidified mistrust between Philadelphia’s residents and government. Bettmann Archive/Getty Imagesįor the next several years, the confrontation with MOVE would be remembered as an ordeal that transformed the fabric of the city. A view of Osage Avenue in Philadelphia, just two days after a shootout and bombing between police and MOVE. ![]()
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