Biography
Merle Austin Africa is documented as one of the MOVE 9, placing her activism within MOVE’s broader Philadelphia history of radical communal organizing and direct confrontation with city authority. In accounts of MOVE, the MOVE 9 convictions became a central, long-running focus of organizing by supporters, with imprisoned members—including Merle Africa—frequently cited in campaigns against perceived political repression and punitive policing.
She was arrested on Aug. 8, 1978 after the Powelton Village confrontation and was convicted of third-degree murder alongside the other MOVE 9, receiving a decades-long sentence. She died while incarcerated in 1998. Merle Africa was a member of the MOVE organization arrested with eight other MOVE members in the August 8, 1978 Philadelphia police raid on the MOVE compound at 33rd and Powelton. She was convicted along with the rest of the MOVE 9 of third-degree murder of Officer James J. Ramp. She died in Pennsylvania state prison in March 1998 at age 47 — the first of the MOVE 9 to die behind bars.
The retrospective MOVE booklet captions Merle being escorted from the house on May 3, 1978 during implementation of a negotiated settlement under which members were arraigned and released on recognizance. Its later prison roster identifies Merle Austin Africa as OO-6306 at Cambridge Springs. The temporary May processing event is distinct from her August 8 arrest and subsequent long imprisonment. 25 Years on the MOVE (May 1996; March 1997 printing), PDF pages 17, 24. Source: https://azinelibrary.org/approved/25-years-move-1.pdf
Death in custody, not release alive
Philadelphia Magazine, January 14, 2015 documents the deaths in custody of Merle Africa on March 13, 1998 and Phil Africa on January 10, 2015. The death-in-custody date remains the endpoint for imprisonment calculations; it is not also recorded as a release alive. The existing death date and supported imprisonment duration are preserved.
The Summer 1995 Breakthrough prisoner-support directory lists Merle Austin Africa, with historical prisoner number 006306, at 451 Fullerton Ave, Cambridge Springs PA 16403-1238. This is the directory’s historical correspondence address, not a current mailing instruction or present custody claim. It supplies no admission, transfer or release day and no completed custody total.
Breakthrough, Summer 1995, Write Through the Walls, PDF page58.
The EddieAfrica parole article identifies Merle and Phil as MOVE9 members who died in prison. It supplies no individual death day or new complete custody duration; independently established death records remain intact.
The MOVE commemoration explicitly dates Merle Africa’s death in Pennsylvania custody to March 13, 1998. Its twenty-year description is rounded and not a newly documented exact total. The group’s 1978 arrest and thirty-to-one-hundred-year sentences are distinguished from each person’s individual completed confinement.
The Dragons Fire, National Jericho Movement Newsletter, vol. 6, July–August 2018, PDF page 30.
