Remembrance & Memorials : The Police Bombing of MOVE HQ 1985
source: 4WardEverUK
published: 18 April 2025
Image Credit: YouTube: www.youtube.com
From all of our hundreds of Remembrance Calendar entries, we particularly feature certain cases that were of notable historical significance.
Police Bombing of MOVE HQ
Eleven people, including five children, perished in a blaze after the state of Philadelphia dropped a bomb on a house owned by members of MOVE.
Sixty one houses burned to the ground on that infamous day, 13th May 1985. Ramona Africa, the only adult MOVE survivor of the siege, and relatives of slain MOVE members sued the City of Philadelphia for millions in federal court. Wilson Goode, mayor at the time of the bombing and the city's only black mayor, had been granted immunity from lawsuits in the case by U.S. District Judge Louis Pollack (who claimed the bombing was reasonable under the circumstances).
On 13 May 1985, Philadelphia police bombed the Move compound, killing 11 people, including five children, and destroying an entire neighborhood. The countercultural group lived communally and had a history of violent encounters with police.
Why did the City of Philadelphia drop a bomb on a row of houses and let the fire burn for over an hour? What led the city to commit acts of war upon its own citizens? Was the city - or even the federal government - determined to wipe out MOVE? To answer these questions, it is necessary to understand who MOVE is. While not all black, they all take the surname " Africa ." Some call them radicals, lunatics, or terrorists.
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