Biography
Alberta Wicker Africa was a close companion of MOVE founder John Africa and later became a leading public voice for the Philadelphia organization. She and other MOVE members left Philadelphia while facing charges arising from the May 20, 1977 confrontation at the group’s Powelton Village home. Police arrested Wicker, John Africa, and other members in Rochester, New York, in May 1981. A Pennsylvania court sentenced her in August 1981, and she served the full seven-year term at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy. While imprisoned, she joined other MOVE women in a prolonged hunger strike and spent periods in restrictive housing. Wicker was released in 1988. After the 1985 bombing and the death of John Africa, she helped reestablish MOVE in West Philadelphia.
MOVE’s retrospective account dates Alberta’s Rochester arrest and extradition to May 13, 1981, and alleges that Judge Kendall Shoyer ordered her bound and gagged when she challenged the warrants. It reports completion of seven years and release in 1988 after she refused a parole condition forbidding association with MOVE. It also alleges an April 29, 1975 beating while held following a demonstration that caused a miscarriage, and later solitary punishment for refusing blood tests. These are attributed MOVE allegations. May 13, 1981 conflicts with the existing May 1 arrest field and is submitted separately for review. 25 Years on the MOVE (May 1996; March 1997 printing), PDF pages 11, 16, 18, 34. Source: https://azinelibrary.org/approved/25-years-move-1.pdf
