THE MOVE ACTIVIST ARCHIVE

Upcoming Events

Each year MOVE memorializes the anniversary of the 1978 attack by Philadelphia police that resulted in the siege of its Powelton Village headquarters and the political imprisonment of The MOVE 9.

The 2024 annual commemoration of this historic date is a special multi-day event that will serve as the launch of The MOVE Activist Archive’s first exhibit, “MOVE: The Old Days” and a fundraiser for the Reclaim Osage campaign.

The powerful exhibit will feature never-before-seen photos, documents, artifacts, unpublished political writings, audio and visual recordings, and personal items, including Ramona Africa’s original bullhorn and 50 years of family photographs.

The MOVE Activist Archive

A community archiving project dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Black activism and radical resistance in Philadelphia, with the history of the MOVE Organization and their revolutionary struggle against state repression as a focal point.

BLack Resistance Tour

In collaboration with Remember Black Philly, the Black Resistance Tour of Philadelphia is a physical and virtual guided tour of sites of Black resistance, which document ways ordinary Black folks have organized themselves to resist structural oppression. The Black Resistance Tour highlights Philly’s distinct forms of community-based cultural resistance as a vehicle for societal transformation. Despite the layers of collective trauma and harm woven into Philly’s most marginalized communities and neighborhoods, the city’s legacy of Black radical organizing persists through the cultivation of Black spaces of resistance.

Remember Black Philly

MOve Archive

In collaboration with Philadelphia’s Archives for Black Lives team, The MOVE Activist Archive is engaged in processing, describing, and digitizing archival materials from the MOVE Organization. These historical materials include newspaper articles, cassettes, VHS tapes, and more documenting the story of MOVE and of Black resistance in Philadelphia. The aim of this work is to bring greater appreciation of the MOVE experience to the public through making the material history of the organization accessible to the public. The intersectional narrative of archives, art, culture, artifacts, and oral histories will reclaim MOVE’s story as not only its own, but the community’s.

Reclaim Osage

It’s been 38 years since MOVE was violently removed from our home on Osage Avenue by force of a bomb dropped by the Philadelphia PD. After the bombing, Philly officials turned the house into a police substation which it remained for the next 30 years. Louise James was the sister of MOVE founder John Africa and the owner of the house. She was a columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest black newspaper in the country. She wrote for papers and publications around the country, tackling issues, such as racism, police violence, and governmental corruption. Her dying wish was to have her house returned to her, but the city refused. It’s 38 years past time. Reclaiming Louise’s home is not just about MOVE, it’s about remembering everyone in our community whose life was changed, and changing the course of its impact for generations to come. Reclaim Osage seeks to create a space for future generations to learn what happened so that we can work to heal and build a stronger community.