MOVE

MOVE
Leader(s)	John Africa
Foundation	1972
Active region(s)	Philadelphia
Ideology	Anarcho-primitivism Communalism Environmentalism
Political position	Far-left
Major actions	Advocating rights for people of color
Status	Active

MOVE is a Philadelphia-based black liberation group founded by John Africa (born Vincent Leaphart) in 1972. The group lives communally. Its members frequently engage in public demonstrations against racism, police brutality, and other issues.

The group is particularly known for two major conflicts with the Philadelphia Police Department. In 1978, a standoff resulted in the death of one police officer, injuries to several other people, and life sentences for nine members. In 1985, another standoff ended when a police helicopter dropped a bomb on their compound, a row house in the middle of Osage Avenue, causing a fire. This killed eleven MOVE members, including five children. The fire burst out of control and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood, prompting widespread news coverage.

MOVE was originally called the Christian Movement for Life when it was founded in 1972. Its founder, John Africa, was functionally illiterate. He dictated a document called The Guideline to Donald Glassey, a social worker from the University of Pennsylvania. Africa and his contemporary, mostly African-American followers wore their hair in dreadlocks, as popularized by some Caribbean musicians. They advocated a radical form of green politics and a return to a hunter-gatherer society, while stating their opposition to science, medicine, and technology. As John Africa had done, his devotees changed their surnames to Africa to show reverence to what they regarded as their mother continent.

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