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The Cult Dossier · No. 064 · Political / Terror

MOVE

The Christian Movement for Life; the Africa family

1972 – present · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

VII. THE 1980s — SIEGE AND SCANDAL

A back-to-nature philosophy with religious framing

Who led it

JOHN AFRICA (born Vincent Leaphart, 1931–1985), a Korean War veteran, whose teachings were written down by Donald Glassey as The Guidelines. All members took the surname AFRICA.

What it worshipped and taught

John Africa's Guidelines: a radical naturalism rejecting technology, medicine, cooked food, formal education and all systems of government as the corrupt work of the system. Practices: raw food diet, refusal of medical care, composting on the property, large numbers of animals, and the use of loudspeakers to broadcast profanity-laden political sermons at the neighbourhood at all hours — the proximate cause of most complaints.

Who was in it

John Africa (Vincent Leaphart); Ramona Africa, the adult survivor of 1985; Delbert Africa, beaten on camera by police in 1978; the MOVE 9; Birdie Africa (Michael Ward), the child survivor; MAYOR WILSON GOODE, Philadelphia's first Black mayor; Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor; Officer James Ramp, killed in 1978; MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, a journalist sympathetic to MOVE, convicted in 1981 of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner in a separate case.

How it ended, or where it stands

Still exists as a small group; the state action against it is now regarded as an atrocity.

The dead

11 (including 5 children) in 1985; 1 police officer in 1978

Of note

The only occasion on which an American city government dropped a bomb on its own citizens. Included as the strongest case in this dossier where the lethal actor was the state, not the group.

Its timeline

  1. 1972 MOVE founded in the Powelton Village neighbourhood.
  2. 8 August 1978 First armed confrontation. Police storm the Powelton Village house; Officer James Ramp is killed by a gunshot. Nine MOVE members receive 30-to-100-year sentences. Delbert Africa is beaten by officers on camera; the officers are acquitted.
  3. 1981 MOVE relocates to 6221 Osage Avenue in a residential row-house block.
  4. 13 MAY 1985 THE OSAGE AVENUE BOMBING. After a standoff, POLICE FIRE 10,000 ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION INTO THE HOUSE IN NINETY MINUTES, then a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter drops a satchel of explosive onto the roof — reported as two one-pound charges, with accounts naming TOVEX, a dynamite substitute, and C-4. THE FIRE COMMISSIONER THEN ORDERED FIREFIGHTERS TO LET IT BURN. The fire is allowed to burn. ELEVEN PEOPLE DIE — John Africa, five other adults and FIVE CHILDREN AGED 7 TO 13. SIXTY-ONE HOUSES BURN DOWN, a figure some accounts put at about 65, and 250 people are made homeless. Ramona Africa and 13-year-old Birdie Africa are the only survivors.
  5. 1986 The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission finds the bombing unconscionable; NO ONE IS EVER CRIMINALLY CHARGED. Ramona Africa serves seven years for riot and conspiracy.
  6. 1996 A federal jury awards 1.5 million dollars to Ramona Africa and relatives.
  7. 2005 Displaced Osage Avenue residents receive 12.83 MILLION DOLLARS in damages.
  8. 2021 Philadelphia formally apologises. It emerges that the remains of MOVE children had been retained for decades by the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA and PRINCETON without family consent. Penn Museum was found to hold the remains of DELISHA AFRICA, 12. Princeton allowed remains to be used as teaching material in an ONLINE COURSE DISTRIBUTED THROUGH COURSERA. Both universities apologised; Penn called its own conduct 'insensitive, unprofessional and unacceptable'.
  9. 2021–2024 FURTHER HUMAN REMAINS ARE SUBSEQUENTLY DISCOVERED at the Penn Museum. In December 2024 families are still publicly demanding the FINAL return of all remains — the matter is not closed by the apology.
  10. 2025 PENN SETTLES a lawsuit brought by LIONELL DOTSON, brother of Katricia 'Tree' Dotson and Delisha Africa, over the university's decades-long possession of the remains.
  11. 2024–2026 Family demands remain outstanding: a full audit of Penn's entire anthropological inventory, a public memorial, the return of the Osage Avenue property, and accountability for those who handled the remains.
  12. November 2020 City Council issues a formal apology and establishes an annual day of remembrance.

Its people

John Africa

Vincent Leaphart

Founder, MOVE · 26 July 1931 – 13 May 1985 · active 1972–1985

A Korean War veteran whose teachings, transcribed by Donald Glassey as The Guidelines, rejected technology, medicine, cooked food, formal education and all government as the work of 'the system'. All members took the surname Africa. He was acquitted at a federal trial in 1981 in which he represented himself. He died in the 1985 police bombing of the Osage Avenue house along with ten others, five of them children — an event in which the lethal actor was unambiguously the city of Philadelphia, not MOVE.

Before the law. ACQUITTED at his 1981 federal trial. NO ONE WAS EVER CHARGED over the 1985 bombing.

Where things stand. Deceased 1985. Philadelphia formally apologised in 2020.

  1. 1972 Founds MOVE in Powelton Village.
  2. 8 August 1978 First armed confrontation; Officer James Ramp killed; nine members receive 30-to-100-year sentences.
  3. 1981 Acquitted at federal trial, representing himself.
  4. 13 MAY 1985 Killed when police drop an explosive device on the Osage Avenue roof and let the fire burn. 11 dead including 5 children; 61 houses destroyed.

Checked 2026-08-24

Ramona Africa

—

Sole adult survivor of the MOVE bombing · born 1955 · active 1979–present

The only adult to escape the Osage Avenue house on 13 May 1985, when Philadelphia police dropped an explosive device on the roof and let the fire burn, killing eleven people including five children and destroying 61 houses. She emerged with severe burns — and was then prosecuted, convicted of riot and conspiracy, and served seven years. No official was ever charged for the bombing. In 1996 a federal jury awarded her and the victims' relatives 1.5 million dollars, finding the city had used excessive force.

Before the law. CONVICTED of riot and conspiracy and imprisoned for seven years — while no official faced any charge for the eleven deaths.

Where things stand. LIVING — confirmed to MAY 2025 (born 1955; NO CURRENT AGE IS PRINTED HERE BECAUSE IT ROTS, and this field carried a stale one until 2026-09-07), when she spoke publicly on the fortieth anniversary of the bombing. SHE IS THE ONLY LIVING SURVIVOR: the sole other survivor, MICHAEL MOSES WARD (Birdie Africa, L231), died in 2014. She still carries burn scars from 13 May 1985, and continues to campaign — including for the release of MUMIA ABU-JAMAL.

  1. 1979 Joins MOVE.
  2. 13 MAY 1985 Escapes the burning house with severe burns; 11 others die, 5 of them children.
  3. 1986 Convicted of riot and conspiracy; serves seven years.
  4. 1996 A federal jury awards 1.5 million dollars to her and the victims' families.
  5. 2020 Philadelphia formally apologises; the retention of MOVE children's remains by two universities becomes a second scandal.

Checked 2026-09-07 · living: health details are kept at home

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