On a Move: Philadelphia's Notorious Bombing and a Native Son's Lifelong Battle for Justice; MIke Africa, Jr.

The incredible story of MOVE, the revolutionary Black civil liberties group that Philadelphia police bombed in 1985, killing 11 civilians—by one of the few people born into the organization, raised during the bombing's tumultuous aftermath, and in the face of unthinkable systemic abuses, entrusted with repairing what was left of his family and building life anew. Before police dropped a bomb on a residential neighborhood on May 13, 1985, few outside Philadelphia knew a Black-led peace organization had taken root there. Founded in 1972 by a charismatic ideologue called John Africa, MOVE’s mission was to protect all forms of life from systemic oppression, drawing ideology from the Black Panther Party, PETA, and Earth First. The organization emerged in an era when Black Philadelphians suffered under devastating policies brought by President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs and Mayor Frank Rizzo’s overtly racist police surveillance. Living together in a commune of West Philly row houses, M