May 13, 2025
Provided image/HBO
Members of MOVE stand in front of their former home in a photo used in '40 Years a Prisoner.'
Philadelphia observes a grim anniversary Tuesday. Forty years ago, city police dropped a satchel bomb on the rowhome at 6221 Osage Ave., killing six adults and five children inside.
The May 13, 1985, blast followed a lengthy standoff in which cops fired tear gas canisters, high-pressure hoses and over 10,000 rounds of ammunition into the house. They had arrived to arrest several members of MOVE, the Black liberation group that lived communally at the property and whose followers adopted the last name of its founder, John Africa. When they refused to comply with the police's warrants, the violence started, with some MOVE members returning fire.
The ensuing explosion destroyed 61 homes and has continued to haunt the city decades after the fact. Fresh scandals about the mishandling of victims' remains continue to emerge. The future of the site remains an open question. And the story keeps evolving with new voices and information.
These documentaries, book and podcast series have attempted to piece it together. Though they vary in medium and focus, they offer audiences a means to understand the background, complexities and continuing effects of the MOVE bombing, all this time later.
Told entirely through archival footage, "Let the Fire Burn" is often considered the definitive documentary of the bombing. Viewers watch the story unfold through news accounts of the day, testimony from the MOVE Commission and a deposition from the lone child survivor, Birdie Africa. There are no modern-day interviews or re-creations, just an unflinching account of what happened. "Let the Fire Burn" is available to rent on Apple TV.
The events of May 13, 1985, are never mentioned in this 2020 documentary, now streaming on Max. But it gives crucial context to the circumstances that led to them.
"40 Years a Prisoner" follows Mike Africa Jr. on his lifelong crusade to free his parents — Mike Africa Sr. and Debbie Africa — from incarceration. They were two members of the MOVE Nine, convicted for the murder of Philadelphia police officer James Ramp. He died in a 1978 shootout at the group's original home in Powelton Village. What actually happened there is unclear to this day; some believe Ramp was not murdered, but killed by friendly fire. What is indisputable is that the confrontation followed years of police provocation, escalation and denial about its brutality toward MOVE. The documentary interviews reporters, cops and civilians who were at the scene that day, though its focus remains on Africa Jr., who was born in prison and never saw his parents outside a correctional facility until he was 39 years old.
WHYY examines the neighborhood affected by the bombing in this hourlong special. The 1986 documentary, originally titled "The Burning of Osage," talks to Cobbs Creek residents about the historically Black community. Neighbors explain what brought them to the area, recall their first encounters with MOVE and share their complicated feelings on its members. "The Bombing of Osage Avenue" is narrated by Toni Cade Bambara, who also wrote the script and taught courses at the Scribe Video Center in West Philly.
In addition to starring in a documentary, Mike Africa Jr. penned a book in 2024. "On a Move" traces the history of MOVE from the early life of its founder John Africa, born Vincent Leaphart, to the present day. The author weaves in personal memories as well as interviews with and the archives of several MOVE members to complete the picture.
Linn Washington Jr., a journalism professor at Temple University, hosts this six-part podcast from the college's Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting and the Inquirer. He opens the series on the block where the MOVE headquarters once stood. Washington was one of the reporters who covered its destruction and leans on his decades of work for this podcast. Additional voices include Philadelphia residents and W. Wilson Goode, who was mayor when the bombing occurred. New episodes are still airing Tuesdays.
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