open dyslexic mode

The MOVE organization was a nuisance to their mostly middle-class, predominantly Black neighbors.

They demanded day and night, through a loudspeaker on their property, the release of their incarcerated brethren after city officials turned a deaf ear to their complaints.

Their profanity-laced diatribes reached only the ears of their increasingly angered neighbors, who eventually staged a high-profile news conference to appeal to Governor Richard Thornburgh to take action.

What followed was a military-grade siege of the MOVE headquarters by the Philadelphia Police Department.

Arrest warrants were issued for the adults inside the building, and police had a court order to remove the children, who had been illegally kept from school.

Despite knowing there were children inside, police fired more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition over a 90-minute period.

After an incendiary bomb made of C-4 plastic explosives was dropped on the house, the fire it caused was allowed to rage through the neighborhood.

Eleven people inside the house were killed, including the five children, who ranged in age from 7 to 13 years old. Only Ramona Africa and 13-year-old Birdie Africa escaped, though both were badly burned.