The MOVE Bombing: 13 Facts About The Revolutionary Movement That Ended in Tragedy

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MOVE was a Black liberation organization founded in Philadelphia in 1972 by John Africa, born Vincent Leaphart, per Philadelphia Encyclopedia. (Photo by �� Leif Skoogfors/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)The bombing happened on May 13, 1985, during President Ronald Reagan’s second term in office and while W. Wilson Goode served as Philadelphia’s first Black mayor. Only two people inside the house escaped alive: Ramona Africa and 13-year-old Birdie Africa, whose legal name was Michael Moses Ward. Thirty-five years after the MOVE bombing, former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode publicly apologized for the city’s role in the tragedy. Why the MOVE Bombing Still Matters TodayThe MOVE house on 33rd street in the Powelton Village section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.