Day of remembrance and reflection 40 years after the Philadelphia MOVE bombing
11 people, including 5 children, died in the incident on May 13, 1985
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It was a day of remembrance on Tuesday as Philadelphia marks 40 years since the MOVE bombing, which left 11 people, including five children, dead.
It was on May 13, 1985, that Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a home along Osage Avenue in Cobbs Creek, targeting the Black liberation group MOVE.
MOVE was dubbed a radical organization by police in the late seventies after several confrontations, including one that left a police officer dead.
The bombing followed an hours-long standoff after police tried to serve arrest warrants at the fortified home.
For hours, MOVE members and police exchanged gunfire. Eventually, Mayor Wilson Goode instructed the Police Commissioner Gregore J. Sambor to develop a tactical plan to remove residents from the building.
The police officers' actions later included dropping a bomb onto the residential building in order to destroy a bunker on the roof, and they were told by Sambor to let the fire burn.
However, the fire burned out of control, and the resulting blaze destroyed 61 homes and displaced about 250 people.
A 'Horrifying Day'
The only living survivor shared her harrowing reflection with Action News.
"It's a heavy day for us," said 69-year-old Ramona Africa as she sat on her front porch. "It was a horrifying day."
Every May 13 has been difficult for her and her family for the past 40 years. Africa's body still bears the scars of what happened that day.
"You see this, this is burn scars from May 13th," she said while raising the left sleeve of her t-shirt to reveal burn marks on her upper arm.
Ramona Africa was one of only two MOVE survivors. The other survivor, Michael Moses Ward - who was also once known as Birdie Africa - died in 2014.
"None of us knew it was a bomb being dropped on us," Ramona Africa recalls of that day. Saying she and others were in the basement of the home as police positioned themselves outside.
The group listened to the radio and heard about the police setting up outside the MOVE home. Soon thereafter, a military-grade bomb was dropped on a bunker that sat atop the house.
"We heard the tree in the back of our home crackling with the fire," said Ramona Africa, "and that's when we really knew that the house was on fire."
"We tried to come out, tried to bring our children out," Ramona Africa recalled. "When we tried to come out, they deliberately shot at us. Shot us back into the fire."
On the 40th anniversary of the bombing, Community College of Philadelphia held a day-long symposium on the significance of the incident and how it's publicly recalled. Sentiments about the MOVE organization have evolved over four decades.
"It's vastly different," said Michael Africa, Jr, whose uncle was the leader and founder of MOVE. "Back in the 80s, MOVE was mostly hated. I remember being a kid and being picked up by people and thrown."
He was just six years old at the time of the bombing. On May 13, 1985, he was safe at his grandmother's house, but many of his childhood friends inside the MOVE house were killed.
Some of their remains were secretly kept by the city of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. It's a discovery that both the city and the university have admitted to in recent years.
"[The children who were killed] bones were stolen and put in a museum and used as research material and fundraising material," said Michael Africa, Jr., "and there's no accountability for the people that did these things."
That's part of his ongoing fight for justice. Ramona Africa continues her fight, too. It includes advocating for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an activist and journalist who MOVE members say was wrongfully convicted of murder.
City Council voted last week to declare May 13 a day of remembrance and reflection.
The resolution was sponsored by council member Jamie Gauthier, who read the names of the 11 people who died on that day in 1985.
Mishandling of victims' remains
Controversy has erupted in recent years over the mishandling of the remains of several MOVE bombing victims, including as recently as November 2024.
RELATED: Philly releases independent report on mishandling of MOVE bombing victims' remains
That's when the remains of 12-year-old Delisha Africa were returned to her mother. It was learned Delisha's remains, along with those of her 14-year-old sister Tree, were allegedly being used for research and housed at the Penn Museum.
In 2021, the University of Pennsylvania admitted to keeping the bones of at least one victim. There was also a box of remains discovered at the city of Philadelphia's medical examiner's office. The remains of victims were also being used at Princeton University.
