{"id":1906,"date":"2014-05-12T09:25:32","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T16:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=5649"},"modified":"2019-08-15T11:04:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T19:04:32","slug":"let-fire-burn-fallout-29-years","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/let-fire-burn-fallout-29-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The MOVE Bombings 29 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MOVE

MOVE members and police during the 1978 confrontation outside MOVE headquarters.<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s the week\u00a0of the 29th anniversary of the MOVE bombings, and for those who were in the middle of it and are still with us, the memories of those tragic events still linger all these years later.\u00a0As the haunting story unfolds in\u00a0Jason Osder<\/a>‘s Let the Fire Burn<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, you may be curious as to what became of some of the people involved.<\/p>\n

[Much of the\u00a0information cited here and linked is thanks to the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a><\/em>‘s 25th anniversary coverage.]<\/p>\n

[Update (2019)<\/em>: <\/strong>Read this oral history of the 1985 bombings on Vox<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The saddest news of all is the very recent, sudden death of Michael Ward<\/a>, aka Birdie Africa, who <\/span>was the only child to survive the MOVE bombing. His mother Rhonda Africa was killed in the tragic event. Ward, only 41 at the time of his death, was on a cruise in the Caribbean with his family. Ward had fought through the pain of the awful events from his childhood\u00a0to restart his life; from\u00a0the New York Times<\/em><\/a> obituary:<\/p>\n

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Yet after years of rehabilitation from injuries physical and psychological, he graduated from high school, served in the Army, became a father and made a career as a long-haul trucker and a barber.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ramona Africa<\/a>, the one adult survivor of the MOVE fire (and whom has an interesting quote of condolences in that article about Ward linked above), served seven years in prison on riot charges stemming from the 1985 confrontation. She later sued the city and pocketed part of a $1.5 million civil-rights judgment. She still lives in Philadelphia, and still upholds MOVE’s beliefs and causes. She said the group’s priority is still the “unrelenting fight for our brothers and sisters who’ve been in prison since 1978.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, she travels around the world – she’s been to Cuba, South Africa, and several European countries – spreading the message of John Africa.\u00a0And as for MOVE itself, a current website<\/a> shows\u00a0the group to be still active.<\/p>\n

Here’s Ramona Africa a few years ago talking to Philadelphia TV current affairs host Art Fennell, giving her perspective on what happened in that city in the late ’70s and early ’80s.<\/p>\n