Tuesday, May 13, 2025, marks the 40th anniversary of the 1985 police bombing on the headquarters of the Philadelphia Black liberation group, MOVE.
MOVE members, led by founder John Africa, practiced a back-to-nature lifestyle that shunned modern conveniences, preached equal rights for animals and rejected government authority. The group clashed with police and many of their practices drew complaints from residents in Philadelphia’s Cobbs Creek neighborhood.
On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police officers seeking to oust MOVE members from their headquarters engaged in a 90-minute shootout with the group before using a helicopter to drop a bomb on their house. Six adults and five children inside the MOVE headquarters were killed in the bombing. The explosion caused a fire that then spread and burned down more than 60 homes in the city’s Cobbs Creek neighborhood, leaving 250 people homeless, as emergency personnel were told to stand down.
A 1986 commission report called the decision to bomb an occupied home “unconscionable.” MOVE survivors were awarded a $1.5 million judgment in a 1996 lawsuit. Yet despite two grand jury investigations, no one from city government was ever criminally charged for the bombing.
In 2020, City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier (D-Philadelphia, 3rd District) led the push for City Council to formally apologize for the MOVE bombing. Five years later, with the 40-year anniversary a few days away, Gauthier introduced a resolution on Thursday, May 8, 2025, declaring May 13 as a day of reflection and remembrance in honor of the victims.
“Before I move for adoption of the resolution, I ask that we observe a moment of silence for the victims who lost their lives in the MOVE bombing 40 years ago,” Gauthier said on Thursday.
Gauthier — who represents the community where the MOVE bombing occurred — told NBC10 she hopes to make the remembrance an annual event.
“If we don’t sort of dissect the MOVE bombing and why it happened, I think we won’t be able to heal as a city,” she said. “And it’s also important to commemorate what happened so that it will never happen again.”
Mike Africa Jr., a MOVE representative and family member of the victims who died, spoke during Thursday’s meeting. He said he remembers the bombing like it was yesterday.
“There were people in the neighborhoods coming up to me telling me that they dropped a bomb on MOVE,” he said. “There was disbelief. It was chaos. You know to see your family members watching their family members on the television and being killed is unbelievable.”
Africa Jr. told NBC10 he was surprised by the resolution.
“You know, I grew up believing that all politicians were liars,” he said. “And that’s probably true for most. But Jamie Gauthier kept her word.”
For Africa Jr., the resolution is only the beginning and he’s looking to create a memorial for the MOVE members who died.
“It means that we have to keep working,” he said. “This is not the end. This is the beginning.”
