Chuck Africa. Debbie Sims Africa. Delbert Orr Africa. Edward Goodman Africa. Janet Holloway Africa. Janine Phillips Africa. Merle Austin Africa. Mike Davis Africa. Phil Africa. Nine names, one sentence of 30 to 100 years each, four decades of incarceration. The MOVE 9 case is the central post-1970s U.S. Black liberation political-prisoner case to come out of Philadelphia. August 8 — the anniversary of the 1978 siege — is observed every year.
The case
On August 8, 1978, after months of mounting confrontation between MOVE and the Philadelphia Police Department, hundreds of officers laid siege to MOVE\'s home at 309 N. 33rd Street in Powelton Village. The stated mission was the service of weapons-possession warrants on MOVE members. The siege ended after Police Officer James Ramp was killed by a single bullet whose trajectory has been disputed by every independent ballistics review that has examined the evidence — including reviews that have argued the round came from a direction that would have made it physically impossible for any of the nine MOVE members charged to have fired it.
The state of Pennsylvania nevertheless prosecuted nine adult MOVE members as a single conspiracy. All nine were convicted of third-degree murder in 1980 and each received concurrent sentences of 30 to 100 years. The prosecution\'s theory was that since MOVE members had collectively engaged in conduct that produced the death of an officer, each individual was liable for the death regardless of who fired the round. None of the nine ever publicly identified an alleged shooter from inside their own group, and the state\'s ballistics evidence on which member fired the fatal round was incoherent on its face.
The deaths inside
Two of the MOVE 9 died in Pennsylvania state custody without ever being paroled: Merle Africa died in 1998 at SCI Cambridge Springs. Phil Africa died in January 2015 at SCI Dallas. Both deaths drew protest from MOVE supporters and from independent observers, both for the underlying length of sentence and for the documented medical and grievance histories of the prisoners involved.
The releases (2018–2020)
Beginning in 2018 — forty years after the original convictions, as the surviving MOVE 9 reached parole-eligibility under Pennsylvania\'s sentencing structure — the remaining members began to be granted parole:
- Debbie Sims Africa, June 2018
- Mike Davis Africa, October 2018
- Janine Phillips Africa, May 2019
- Janet Holloway Africa, May 2019
- Eddie Goodman Africa, June 2019
- Delbert Orr Africa, January 2020
- Chuck Africa, February 2020
Each was paroled to MOVE family in Philadelphia. The releases were widely celebrated; the 2018–2020 window was the closest the U.S. movement-defense tradition has come in the modern era to bringing a full cohort of Black liberation political prisoners home alive.
Delbert
Delbert Orr Africa — paroled January 18, 2020 after nearly 42 years — was visibly ill on release. He died on June 15, 2020, less than six months later, of complications widely attributed by his family and supporters to the cumulative medical neglect of his decades in Pennsylvania state custody. He was 74.
What 2024 was for the survivors
2024 was a year of memorial and continuation. The surviving MOVE 9 — Debbie, Mike, Janine, Janet, Eddie, Chuck — continue to live in the Philadelphia area and to participate in MOVE\'s ongoing organizing, including the May 13 anniversary commemorations of the 1985 bombing. They write. They speak. They are present in court when other political prisoners need court support. They are the surviving generational link between the Black liberation prison tradition of the 1970s and the contemporary Black abolitionist movement.
NPPC tracks the surviving members\' public work and continues to publish on the MOVE political-prisoner record. August 8 and May 13 are observed annually.
