| 1985 MOVE bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part ofBlack Power movement andpolitical violence in the United States during theCold War | |
 A crowd watching a row of buildings go up in flames inPhiladelphia following the May 13, 1985 bombing | |
| Location | 39°57′21″N75°14′49″W / 39.9557°N 75.2469°W /39.9557; -75.2469 6221 Osage Ave,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Date | May 13, 1985; 40 years ago (1985-05-13) |
| Target | MOVE members |
Attack type | Aerial bombing withC4,police brutality[1] |
| Weapons | Tovex C-4 |
| Outcome | Philadelphia Police Department found liable in federal court for excessive force and unreasonable search and seizure |
| Victims | 11 killed,[a] 250 people made homeless |
| Perpetrators | Philadelphia Police Department |
| Litigation | City of Philadelphia ordered to pay $1.5 million in 1996 to a MOVE bombing survivor and the families of people killed; $12.83 million awarded in 2005 to residents who were made homeless. |
The1985 MOVE bombing, locally known by its date,May 13, 1985,[2] was theaerial bombing of a house, and the destruction of 61 more houses by the subsequent fire, in theCobbs Creek neighborhood ofPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, United States, by thePhiladelphia Police Department during an armed battle withMOVE, ablack liberation organization. MOVE members shot at Philadelphia police who had come toevict them from the house they were using as their headquarters. Philadelphiapolice aviators then dropped twoexplosive devices from aPennsylvania State Policehelicopter onto the roof of the house, which was occupied at the time. For 90 minutes, the Philadelphia Police Department allowed the resulting fire to burn out of control, destroying 61 previously evacuated neighboring houses over two city blocks and leaving 250 people homeless.[3] Six adults and five children were killed in the attack;[4] two occupants of the house, one adult and one child, survived. A lawsuit in federal court found that the city usedexcessive force and violated constitutional protections againstunreasonable search and seizure.[5]
In 1981,MOVE relocated to arow house at 6221 Osage Avenue in theCobbs Creek area ofWest Philadelphia. Neighbors complained to the city for years about trash around their building, confrontations with neighbors, andbullhorn announcements of political messages by MOVE members.[6][7] The bullhorn was broken and inoperable for the three weeks prior to the police bombing of the row house.[7]
The police obtainedarrest warrants in 1985 charging four MOVE occupants with crimes includingparole violations,contempt of court,illegal possession of firearms, and making terroristic threats.[8] MayorWilson Goode andpolice commissionerGregore J. Sambor classified MOVE as a terrorist organization.[9] Police evacuated residents of the area from the neighborhood prior to their action. Residents were told that they would be able to return after 24 hours.[10]
On Monday, May 13, 1985, nearly 500 police officers, along withcity managerLeo Brooks, arrived in force and attempted to clear the building and execute thearrest warrants.[10][9] Water and electricity were shut off to try to force MOVE members out of the house. At 5:35 a.m., Sambor read a long speech addressed to MOVE members that started with, "Attention MOVE: This is America. You have to abide by the laws of the United States." They were given 15 minutes to come out. When the MOVE members did not respond, the police decided to forcibly remove everyone who was in the house.[10][6] Inside the building were seven adults and six children.[11]
An armed battle ensued.[12] Police threwtear gas canisters at the building. The MOVE members fired at them, and a gunfight withsemi-automatic andautomatic firearms went on for 90 minutes.[13] One officer'sflak jacket was hit in the back, but he was not seriously hurt.[6] Police used more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition. At 2 p.m., Sambor ordered that the compound be bombed.[13]
From a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter, Philadelphia Police Department Lt. Frank Powell proceeded to drop two 1.5-pound (0.75 kg) bombs (which the police referred to as "entry devices"[9]) made ofTovex, adynamite substitute, combined with two pounds ofFBI-suppliedC-4,[14] targeting a fortified, bunker-like cubicle on the roof of the house.[6] The bombs exploded after 45 seconds, igniting the fuel of a gasoline-powered generator and setting the house on fire, which was left to burn. Officials later stated that this was to let the fire burn through the roof and destroy the "bunker", so police could then drop tear gas into the house and flush out the occupants. Thirty minutes later, firefighters moved in to control the fire, but there was gunfire and the firefighters and police were ordered back as the fire spread to neighboring houses down the street. The only two MOVE survivors,Birdie Africa, who was 13 at the time, and Ramona Africa, both escaped the house. Police initially said that two men had also run out of the house at the same time and fired at them and that police had returned fire.[6] Ramona Africa said that police fired at those trying to escape. Police said that MOVE members moved in and out of the house shooting at the police.[15] Thefire department declared the fire under control at 11:47 p.m.[6]
The fire killed 11 of the people in the house, six adults and five children:John Africa, Rhonda Africa, Theresa Africa, Frank Africa, Conrad Africa, Tree Africa, Delisha Africa, Netta Africa, Little Phil Africa, Tomaso Africa, and Raymond Africa. Sixty-one neighboring houses were destroyed by the fire, leaving 250 people homeless.[16]
Mayor Goode appointed an investigative commission called the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (PSIC, which became known as the MOVE Commission), chaired byWilliam H. Brown, III. Commissioner Sambor resigned in November 1985; in a speech the following year, he said that he was made a "surrogate" by Goode.[17]
In 1986,Ellen Powell Tiberino and her husband Joseph created a seven-footrelief sculpture calledThe MOVE Confrontation as their interpretation of the bombing. It depicted people engulfed in flames, Mayor W. Wilson Goode, adeath mask and horrified spectators. It created controversy in the city and produced headlines across the country.[18]
The MOVE Commission issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable.[19] Following the release of the report, Goode made a formal public apology.[20] No one from the city government was criminally charged in the attack. The only surviving adult MOVE member, Ramona Africa, refused totestify in court and was charged and convicted on charges ofriot andconspiracy; she served seven years in prison.[21]
A lawsuit appealing a judgment against the police and public officials was filed with theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on November 3, 1994Africa v. City of Philadelphia (In re City of Philadelphia Litig.), 49 F.3d 945 (1995) and was decided on March 6, 1995. The court decided that theplaintiffs did not have aFourth Amendment claim against the city because there was no seizure when the defendants dropped explosives on the plaintiffs' buildings, and that city officials and police officers hadqualified immunity under 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983, but that the city was not immune from liability despite its officials being exempt as individuals.[22]
In 1996, afederal jury ordered the city to pay a $1.5 millioncivil suit judgment to survivor Ramona Africa and relatives of two people killed in the bombing. The jury had found that the city used excessive force and violated the members' constitutionalprotections against unreasonable search and seizure. Ramona was awarded $500,000 for the pain, suffering and physical harm suffered in the fire.[5]
In 2005, federal judgeClarence Charles Newcomer presided over a civil trial brought by residents seeking damages for having been displaced by the widespread destruction following the 1985 police bombing of MOVE. A jury decided that the City of Philadelphia should pay them $12.83 million.[23]
In 2013, thedocumentary filmLet the Fire Burn introduced the history of the MOVE bombing to a wider audience.[24]
In November 2020, thePhiladelphia City Council approved aresolution to formally apologize for the MOVE bombing.[25][26] On May 8, 2025, thePhiladelphia City Council approved aresolution declaring May 13 as "a day of reflection and remembrance" in honor of the victims.[27][28]
By late fall 1985, the city government and a private developer had begun to rebuild the residential block that the police department damaged with the MOVE bombing. However, the homeowners who moved back in found the construction to be of poor quality,[29] and in 1995, theEd Rendell administration summoned theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers to inspect the buildings; they found the 61 buildings were not up to code. The city government attempted to remedy this, but by 2005, the city gave up trying to improve the defects and offered $150,000 to any resident who would agree to leave; over two-thirds accepted the deal and abandoned their houses. In 2016, the city government committed to rebuilding the block again;[30] in January 2023, Mike Africa Jr., who is a member of MOVE and great-nephew of John Africa, bought the house at 6221 Osage Avenue with plans to turn part of it into a memorial.[31][32]
Since the bombing, the bones of two children, 14-year-old Tree (Katricia Dotson) and 12-year-old Delisha Orr Africa, were kept at theUniversity of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2021,Billy Penn revealed that according to the museum, the remains had been transferred to researchers atPrinceton University, though the university was unaware of their exact whereabouts. The remains had been used byJanet Monge, an adjunct professor inanthropology at theUniversity of Pennsylvania and a visiting professor in the same subject at Princeton University, in videos for an onlineforensics course named "RealBones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology," as case studies.[33] Present-day MOVE members were shocked to learn this, with Mike Africa Jr. stating, "They were bombed, and burned alive ... and now you wanna keep their bones."[34]
The city stated the remains had gone unclaimed by the families after the bombing,[35] but in May 2021, the city of Philadelphia's Health Commissioner,Thomas Farley, resigned under pressure after it was revealed that, in 2017, he ordered thecremation and disposal of victims' remains without either identifying them or contacting members of the family.[36] A day after Farley's resignation, staff at theMedical Examiner's Office found the box labeled "MOVE" in a refrigerated area of their office containing the un-cremated remains. As of 2021, Mike Africa Jr. stated that the Africa family have not yet decided what to do with the remains.[37] The sisters' remains from the Medical Examiner's Office were released to their surviving brother in August 2022.[38]
Although the bones used by Monge in the "Real Bones" course were given to the Africa family in 2021, accounts differ regarding how many remains were at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and whether all bones from MOVE bombing victims at the museum were returned in 2021. A legal team hired by the University of Pennsylvania stated that the bones of Delisha Orr were never at the Penn Museum.[39] However, an investigation by the City of Philadelphia disagreed, and stated that there was evidence that remains of Delisha Orr were at the Penn Museum.[40] Nine forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology disagreed with the claims published by Penn's legal team and agreed with those of the City of Philadelphia.[41] The City of Philadelphia also questioned whether all the remains of Katricia Dotson which were at the Penn Museum were given to MOVE in 2021.[40]
In November 2024, further remains were found at the University of Pennsylvania.[42] They were thought to belong to Delisha Africa.[42]
The Move property on Osage Avenue had become notorious for its abundant litter of garbage and human waste and for its scurrying rats and dozens of dogs. Bullhorns blared forth obscene tirades and harangues at all times of day and night. MOVE members customarily kept their children out of both clothes and school. They physically assaulted some neighbors and threatened others.
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