MOVE: An Oral History
The history of MOVE
This is a collection of interviews done with various people associated with the MOVE bombing. Interviewees include Ramona Africa (a MOVE member and the only adult survivor of the May 1985 confrontation), Officer James Berghaier, Fire Commissioner William Richmond, and Lt. Frank Powell (who dropped the bomb from a state police helicopter). These interviews give a fairly detailed story of the events spanning from the 1978 killing of Officer James Ramp to the bombing in 1985.
Victor Fiorillo
Victor Fiorillo, "MOVE: An Oral History"<br /><br /><a href="https://www.phillymag.com/news/2010/03/26/move-the-oral-history/">https://www.phillymag.com/news/2010/03/26/move-the-oral-history/</a>
Philadelphia Magazine
March 26, 2010
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English
Online Article
Untitled (Residents Grieve The Loss Of Their Homes)
The destruction of most of Osage Avenue
Residents were devastated to find that all their possessions had burned along with their homes. Here, unidentified residents weep at the sight of what is left of their neighborhood. While the city promised to rebuild, what residents received were shockingly ill-constructed houses. People either moved away or lived in unfinished and barely livable homes. Osage Avenue has never been the same since.
Jack Kanthal
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"<br /><br /><a href="https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/">https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/</a>
Associated Press
Public Domain
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Photograph
Untitled (Sifting Through The Rubble)
Cleaning up Osage Avenue after the fire
Investigators spent days searching the debris for bodies. In all, eleven people were found dead and sixty-one buildings were burned down. From this angle, viewers can get a better understanding of just how much was lost in a very brief period of time.
George Widman
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"<br /><br /><a href="https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/">https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/</a>
Associated Press
May 15, 1985
Public Domain
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Photograph
Untitled (Aerial View Of The Destruction)
The destruction of much of Osage Avenue
An aerial view of the burned out rowhouses, taken the day after the fire. Osage Avenue is visible in between the ruins. The aerial view captures the totality of the destruction. City officials scrambled to rebuild the destroyed property. Goode publicly promised that homes would be rebuilt by December of 1985.
Bettmann
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"<br /><br /><a href="https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/">https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/</a>
Corbis
May 14, 1985
Public Domain
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Photograph
Untitled (First Responders Clear Debris and Bodies)
The cleanup of Osage Avenue
This photo was taken the day after the bombing. After the fire was put out, first responders arrived on the scene to clean up the damage. Included in that cleanup was taking away the remains of eleven MOVE members who died; five of the dead were children. There was some initial controversy about how the bodies were being cared for and handled, as some alleged that the city used construction equipment to remove bodies from the rubble.
J. Scott Applewhite
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"<br /><br /><a href="https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/">https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/</a>
Associated Press
May 14, 1985
Public Domain
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Photograph
Witness Assails Goode as "Mayor of Murder"
Public response to Mayor Goode's handling of the situation
While initially dealing with the accusations of the mother of one of the MOVE members killed in the bombing, this article also touches on the tactics of MOVE leading up to the bombing. The author never explicitly says it, but this article reads as a condemnation of Mayor Goode and his predecessors, William Green and Frank Rizzo, for not adequately solving the MOVE problem sooner. This article also touches on the public backlash against Goode; MOVE members or not, eleven people were dead as a result of his decisions that day.
Bill Peterson
Washington Post
October 9, 1985
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English
Newspaper Article
None Indicted in MOVE Bombing But Jury Calls Act "Reprehensible"
The investigation of city officials
Ultimately, no city officials were ever charged with a crime for the bombing and the resulting fire. The grand jury that overheard the case used blistering language to condemn Mayor Goode, but voted not to file charges by an overwhelming majority. While this damaged Goode's image, he managed to survive politically; he even won re-election. The reputations of most other city officials, including Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor and Fire Commissioner William C. Richmond, were permanently tarnished.
Los Angeles Times
May 4, 1988
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English
Newspaper Article
Untitled (Osage Avenue Property in 2010)
The consequences of the city's attempt to rebuild Osage Avenue homes
Even as recently as 2010, many of the rebuilt homes on Osage Avenue remain unoccupied. The buildings were so poorly constructed that residents sued the city, but the city later dismissed the lawsuit. This photo shows what the neighborhood looked like just ten years ago, as many of the row homes are abandoned or boarded up. Not much has changed in the years since.
Katelyn Fossett, "How A Brutal History Of Race And Policing Shaped Philadelphia And Cleveland"<br /><br /><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/gallery/2016/07/how-a-brutal-history-of-race-shaped-philadelphia-and-cleveland-000651?slide=16">https://www.politico.com/magazine/gallery/2016/07/how-a-brutal-history-of-race-shaped-philadelphia-and-cleveland-000651?slide=16</a>
Associated Press/Politico
2010
Public Domain
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Information Lack Cited in Bombing: Top Philadelphia Officials Say They Lost Touch in Assault on Radical Group Move
The first steps of investigating city officials
This New York Times article demonstrates how unprepared the city was to deal with the ramifications of the bombing, as well as major communication issues at the top level of city government. As the investigation was ongoing, Mayor W. Wilson Goode testified that he was uninformed of details of the assault on the MOVE compound, though he did admit that he agreed to the bombing. This contradicted the testimonies of other city officials. In addition, the city 's Managing Director, Leo Brooks, was out of communication for most of the day. As Commission member Bruce Kaufmann put it, "What we have here is a lot of seperate departments not communicating very well with each other and no one speaking out." This demonstrated communication failures within city government as well as a failure for anyone to take the blame for the bombing.
Lindsey Gruson
New York Times
October 19, 1985
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English
Newspaper Article
Excerpts From Commission's Report on Bombing
The findings of an official investigation into the city government
This <em>New York Times</em> article made public the findings of the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, a committee that had been created specifically to investigate the MOVE bombing. While concluding that the bombing was "excessive" and "life-threatening", the Commission did not explicitly recommend charges to be filed against any city officials. The publishing of these findings reflected very poorly on Wilson Goode, who would run for re-election in 1987. His opponent, former Mayor Frank Rizzo, ran an ad that said, "Wilson Goode dropped a bomb on a Philadelphia neighborhood. Do you want him running your city?" Articles like this one made sure that the bombing would never completely leave the memory of Philadelphians.
New York Times
March 6, 1986
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English
Newspaper Article