What the survivors of MOVE deserve

When June (formerly Pixie) and my wife, Maiga, started messaging in March, the conversation developed rapidly. It was the first time Maiga or I had been completely honest with someone in MOVE about how we’d come to view MOVE as a cult. It was also the first time June had shared many of her stories about the horrors she’d endured as a child in MOVE. When June found out that I was participating in the “Murder at Ryan’s Run” podcast she was scared for my family. She reported that, in the past few years, as Bert and Ria had lost power they were talking about M-1 more frequently, and insinuating potential violence against those whom they’d deemed traitors. 

When the MOVE 9 started coming home, power within MOVE fractured. It became obvious to many of us that Bert and Ria had never intended for the MOVE 9 to get out of prison at all. Mike Africa Jr. was pivotal in pushing for the release of the MOVE 9, and Bert and Ria turned on him and his parents for actually working towards freedom. Those within MOVE who had sympathy for Mike Jr. were seen as disloyal to Bert and Ria. The absurdity of a group who had publicly claimed to fight for the release of the MOVE 9 for four decades turning on other members for actually trying to make that happen was just too much. Fractures and distrust within MOVE became more severe and Bert and Ria were losing power and control over internal narratives. 

June worried that in this climate that Bert and Ria may respond to my speaking out with violence. I pointed out that Lori and Tony Allen had not been physically harmed when they left MOVE and started speaking out in 2004. June countered that Ria and Bert had not lost control over the group at that point. She reiterated that they’d been talking about M-1 (the underground, military faction of MOVE) with increasing frequency, that they were rapidly losing touch with reality, and were capable of absolutely anything. This was disconcerting to hear, and definitely made Maiga and I pause and evaluate the position we were taking. I felt strongly about speaking out about what I knew about the campaign of character assassination against John Gilbride that preceded his murder. I also took June’s concerns very seriously. 

The next day June let us know that she wanted to record everything she knew for the “Murder at Ryan’s Run” podcast. She decided that exposing the abuse of children within MOVE may give her the needed exposure to escape MOVE with her own children. She’d attempted to leave MOVE with her children on other occasions and Alberta had threatened her with murder if she ever tried again. She was told that she could leave, provided she never opened her mouth, but that her children belonged to MOVE. Now that June had decided to speak out our fates were intertwined and we began the process of planning the safest escape with the most possible exposure. We began reaching out to others within MOVE who might be ready to take the same steps. We had to be careful not to reveal too much, or to trust the wrong person. Such a misstep could be fatal, especially for June. Whit and Josh soon joined in on the plan and a date was set. 

The three and a half months from when Maiga and I began communicating with June until I launched this blog were the most stressful months I hope that I ever live through. They were a hundredfold more stressful for June, Josh, and Whit. I vividly remember a night in April when I was up late preparing documents for this blog. I'd also been messaging back and forth with June as she was telling me more about the specific threats Alberta had made against her. As I walked up the stairs to bed around 1 a.m. all of the power in our house went out. I had an intense panic attack and froze in place. I had difficulty breathing and tunnel vision. I feared that when I went into my basement to check the circuit breaker that I’d be shot in the head by a member of M-1 trying to prevent what June had revealed about the inner workings of MOVE from becoming public. It turned out that all of the power had gone out on our whole block. 

This may seem paranoid, but in the previous weeks I’d learned that June had been threatened with death on numerous occasions, as had other MOVE members. We were also spending a great deal of time discussing the murder of John Gilbride. June voiced concerns I’d already considered, that MOVE had contacts in law enforcement who were in cahoots in some way. To someone who buys MOVE’s official narrative of being at war with “the system” this would seem crazy, but when you understand what MOVE actually is it seems much more reasonable. When you look at the fact that MOVE has gotten away with child abuse, sex crimes, forced marriages, financial crimes, and likely a few murders its easy to believe that there might be people in law enforcement who allow this to continue. This could be because of the mandate MOVE gained as a result of the tragedy of May 13th, 1985, but June had been told for her entire life that MOVE had members of M-1 working in law enforcement who ensured that MOVE would be protected. Is there any possibility this was true, or was this just another lie told to children in MOVE to keep them from speaking about their experiences?

When information about the inner workings of MOVE started being released on the “Murder at Ryan’s Run” podcast and on this blog in late June/early July I expected it to get much more attention than it did. Considering all of the positive attention MOVE had received in mainstream media in the previous year I hoped that more journalists would take interest in the story and start digging. I felt that this would provide an added level of protection for June, Josh, and Whit, and Maria, Salina, Sara, and Rain who followed soon after. But I understand how difficult this story is to tell, and how it cuts so sharply against a narrative that would be so much more convenient, if only it were true. The survivors of MOVE, though, are owed so much more.

First, I would like more people to understand how truly incredible they are; to recognize how much they put on the line to protect their children, their younger siblings, and to heal themselves. I’ve spent 14 years studying cults, and what they’ve done just doesn’t happen. I’ve never heard of another time when people who were raised in a cult left in such a united front despite believing that they could be killed for doing so. Cults specialize in keeping people isolated and scared. The events that have occurred during this MOVE reckoning are far from the norm and will hopefully serve as an example for others leaving similar groups. 

The other thing that's so incredible about Josh, Whit, June, Maria, Sara, Salina, Rain, and many who have privately left MOVE, is how empathetic and compassionate they are despite the torture they’ve endured. The first time I talked to Josh he said that he’d be willing to do whatever he needed to do to protect June. Whit is one of the kindest, gentlest people I’ve ever had the honor to know. All of them are brilliant, witty, strong, or courageous in their own ways. When you really understand the physical and psychological torture they’ve endured their psychological survival is miraculous, and they deserve to be celebrated for that. 

Second, I hope the journalists will do a far better job of reporting on MOVE in the future. Reporting on MOVE in the ‘70s and ‘80s was likely more accurate, but was often so infected by the racism and prejudice of its day that it played directly into MOVE’s claims about media bias. Early reporting on MOVE often discredited itself by caricaturing MOVE and glorifying the police. As the winds of public opinion have shifted, reporting on MOVE in the last year has largely painted MOVE as heroic, and many media outlets have adopted the MOVE narrative whole cloth. Neither view of MOVE is correct and both equally obscure the realities of life for children born into the group. It’s my hope that journalists, historians, and documentarians become much more careful in telling the story of MOVE, and that the experiences of children born into MOVE are always included in their narratives. 

Third, I hope that Ria and Alberta, and all of those who assisted them, will be held responsible for their crimes against the children born in MOVE, the Gilbride family, and anyone else who they’ve harmed in their desires for power and money. It’s telling that in the nearly four months since this has gone public they haven't publicly uttered a word. They’re silent in an attempt to protect themselves. Now that MOVE members are speaking out publicly they have no idea when the next shoe may drop and I’d guess they’re hoping that if they stay quiet this may all eventually blow over. 

Fourth, I hope that first generation MOVE members decide to publicly disclose what they know about the fifty years of secrets within MOVE. What’s been disclosed thus far by second and third generation MOVE members is just a small fraction of what’s been hidden. The survivors who've come forward so far have stated the following:

• We’re also asking other current and former MOVE members to speak out about the real history of MOVE in order to protect June, Josh, Whit, Salina, Sara, Maria, Rain, and many others who have suffered as a result of being born into MOVE. We recognize that many MOVE members will be uncomfortable with inner circle knowledge being revealed publicly. However, continuing to promote the romanticized past of MOVE creates the conditions that allow for the ongoing suffering of many who were born into MOVE, as well as other victims of MOVE such as the Gilbride family.

• We are calling on MOVE members of good conscience to begin to tell the truth about MOVE history, including the events that led up to the 1978 and 1985 confrontations, the treatment of children, and any information related to the harassment and/or murder of John Gilbride.

This and so much more is owed to the children who were born into MOVE. They deserve to be given the truth, and the support and space to heal. I have no idea where, if anywhere, all of this will go from here. I’m grateful to have been included in this important work and plan to continue to push for support for the survivors and justice for the Gilbride family. I hope that in the coming months more of the truth will be revealed, that the action of the MOVE survivors will be given the recognition it’s due, and that their courageous example will inspire others seeking freedom from similar groups. The survivors of MOVE have demonstrated that incredible things are possible when truth and solidarity are prioritized. Now I hope that they get all that they deserve. 

Second and Third Generation children born in MOVE

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MOVE: A Psychological Pyramid Scheme

Survivor of MOVE, Rain Robbins, started out a post on this blog by saying: "Have you ever had a conversation with God? I know people who have. I know people who stood on trial with him. He was god and Jesus all in one. The only being in this human form to truly know the will of Momma (Mother Nature and the universe). Have you ever been so close to divinity that sitting in a house in West Philadelphia reading “Guidelines” to a group of your peers rivaled listening to the Pope lead prayer in Rome’s most beautiful cathedral? Have you ever held the last true remnants of the real gospel in your hands? Words so powerful they’d bring the world to its feet? ….I have." 

In Rain's insightful and beautifully written piece she describes one of the most important factors in keeping people in MOVE long after the veneer has lost its shimmer: being in MOVE makes you feel special. On one level this is obvious, after all this is a factor in drawing people towards not just cults, but nearly every human endeavor. However, there are specific ways that special status is used as capital within MOVE that make it deserving of a closer look. It's this selling of specialness that has recently led me to start thinking about MOVE as a sort of psychological pyramid scheme. 

Of course, there are other elements of MOVE that are also similar to a pyramid scheme. Alberta Africa has managed to use the steep pyramid structure of MOVE to siphon millions of dollars from the members and supporters below her. However, unlike in a pyramid scheme, those in the lower levels aren't making any money from the people directly beneath them. For most MOVE members, involvement in MOVE makes them poorer, no matter how many supporters are under them. In this way, the structure of MOVE represents not so much a pyramid, but an oil rig, with Alberta extracting everything from those below her. 

When MOVE was founded in 1972, Vincent Leaphart (who came to be known as John Africa) and Donald Glassey created a mythos that turned Leaphart into God. The teenagers and twenty-somethings who gravitated around Leaphart, a man in his early 40s, felt that they were privileged to be in the presence of such greatness. They came to believe that Leaphart had existed before time itself, that he could speak any language he needed to, and that he was the messiah sent to return humanity to a state before civilization. John Africa was the focus of reverence and attention, extreme specialness, for every MOVE member and supporter below him on the hierarchy. 

The psychological pyramid scheme model within MOVE operates using specialness as the incentive. The price that must be paid in order to receive this specialness is intentional blindness to the hypocrisy and warning signs that are visible in the level of the pyramid directly above. Therefore, by unconsciously ignoring any problems exhibited by Leaphart, all of those under him became special by proxy, so long as no one disrupted the pattern. Each level of the MOVE pyramid was able to seem special to the rung below them, with closeness to Leaphart being the rare commodity driving the market. The levels of association with MOVE extend far out from the center, with many sympathetic academics, authors, and filmmakers depending on the romanticized image of MOVE used to support the specialness they received through association. This mutual dependence on a shared narrative kept the MOVE pyramid strong for many decades, and disincentivized people from being honest about their experiences. 

When I became obsessed with MOVE as a teenager I was awestruck when I met Pam Africa at a demonstration in Washington DC. I met Ramona Africa a few months later and felt as if I were an early Christian meeting one of the apostles. Ramona wasn't John Africa, but she was as close as I thought I would ever come to him. I moved to Philly a few days after I turned 18 and started spending more time at MOVE headquarters. As I started to get closer with Ria and Alberta I really felt like I was special. After all, according to every MOVE member I talked to, they were the strongest MOVE members. At that time I was around Pam and Ramona Africa on a daily basis and both of them told me to look to Ria and Bert as guides. If I listened to Ria and Bert I was sure to stay on course. 

Alberta had been MOVE-married to Vincent Leaphart (John Africa) and was, therefore, said to be the closest living person to him. Ria is Alberta's fiercest and most unquestioning defender. She's the only white MOVE member who remained loyal to John Africa (there were many white MOVE members in the early days) and is the obvious second-in-command. I was frequently told by Ria, and every other MOVE member, that Alberta was mentally the strongest person in the world. Despite the fact that Alberta spends the majority of her time on the couch ordering other people around, complaining, and in withdrawn depressive states, MOVE members talked about her as if she was one of the most incredible people to have ever lived. In order for MOVE's psychological pyramid scheme to continue functioning MOVE members couldn't be honest with themselves, or each other, about who Alberta really is. They'd built their own identities around the power they gained through Vincent Leaphart's specialness, the very same power from which Alberta drew her authority. 

By the time I encountered Ria and Bert I was already completely sold on the MOVE mythology. If Ria and Alberta had been my introduction to MOVE I would have never gravitated toward MOVE in the first place. However, I first encountered MOVE, not in the form of a person, but in the form of an idea. When I read Mumia Abu-Jamal's characterization of MOVE in Death Blossoms I fell in love with his image of MOVE. The first MOVE members I met, Pam, Ramona, and the Seeds of Wisdom, were close enough to the concept of MOVE that I'd fallen in love with. By the time I encountered Ria and Bert I was already so sold on MOVE and had invested so much that it made psychological sense to project greatness onto them. I integrated myself into the pyramid, working hard to rise closer to the top. 

My commitment to MOVE was externally supported by the respect that I gained from many activists for my close association with Ramona and Pam, and for being so committed to the cause. I benefitted from the mystique and romance that surrounds MOVE so long as you don't look too closely. As a white activist, my own unsophisticated idea of anti-racism was validated by being so deeply accepted in a predominantly Black "revolutionary" organization. There are many ways that white activists (like myself) have exploited their connections with MOVE for personal gain. There's a whole lot more that needs to be explored about the fact that most of the close MOVE supporters were white, and the way this white supporter network intersected with MOVE's white supremacist inner-circle beliefs. I plan to explore this more deeply in a future post. 

My support for MOVE was also externally supported by meeting people like Zack de la Rocha, Danny Glover, Michael Franti, and many more, and hearing them talk glowingly about MOVE. A few months before I moved up to Philly, Danielle Mitterrand, the former First Lady of France, had spent the day at MOVE headquarters. At the height of the Mumia movement, there was an endless amount of external support which made me (and other supporters) feel as if I was on the right track. Everyone involved in this pattern had some stake in upholding the idea that MOVE was something that it is not; a righteous, revolutionary, liberation group. 

However, there were many cracks in the veneer that I should have seen, so many signs I should have paid attention to. Cult psychology is complicated, and I was very young when I came around, so I try to cut myself a bit of a break. But it's also important that I take full responsibility for the things that I saw; the things I should have acted on but didn't. When Pixie (now June) was pregnant at the age of 12 I knew something was wrong. I was 18 at the time and I attended the forced wedding between 13-year-old Pixie and an 18-year-old man at MOVE's Kingsessing Ave. headquarters (as did doctors, psychologists, college professors, and other mandated reporters who have, unfortunately, continued to remain silent about what they knew and when they knew it). 

Until June started confiding in my wife, Maiga, and me this past March I didn't know nearly how bad things were, but I knew enough that I should have asked questions and looked more deeply. However, I'd built my entire identity around MOVE. Being in MOVE made me special, it gave my life meaning. To look at MOVE unflinchingly, to actually allow myself to see what was right in front of me, would have destroyed the image of MOVE I had invested in so deeply. 

I imagine that first-generation MOVE members went through the same process. I'm certain that all of them saw things in Leaphart that gave them pause, but they continued on. After all, if he wasn't who they claimed he was, then who were they? In a recent Guardian article, Mike Africa Sr. (now Mike Davis) talks about how he saw signs that MOVE was a cult early on, but he felt compelled to stay in MOVE so that he didn't lose his family (looking at MOVE's long history of splitting up families and stealing peoples' children this seems like a very valid concern). It seems likely that the MOVE members who lived at MOVE's Osage Avenue headquarters walked the same line. Even as it became clear that Vincent Leaphart intended for everyone in the Osage Avenue house to die MOVE members in the house continued to remain loyal to their vision of Leaphart as God (which reinforced their own ideas of themselves as direct disciples of God). 

For this reason, it seems utterly disingenuous that some first-generation MOVE members have publicly distanced themselves from Ria and Bert while feigning scandal about what has now been publicly revealed about the abuse within MOVE. For a first-generation member, it would have been impossible not to have known about the abuse and psychological torture that the survivors have revealed. I understand how psychologically difficult it is to leave a cult. I know that leaving a cult often necessitates the death of an old identity, which can feel like actual death. However, the survivors have been very clear about their desire for first-generation MOVE members to be transparent about the truth of MOVE's history. I hope that these first-generation members can eventually come to terms with MOVE's true legacy so that they can give the people who were born into MOVE (and had no choice in being MOVE members) the transparency and healing they've asked for. 

Equally disappointing to me has been the response from so many of the academics and professional activists who've built careers off of their associations with MOVE. Many of these people have spent decades around the children who were born into MOVE. I believe that some of these people genuinely care about the MOVE survivors but may be scared to speak out publicly due to the political ramifications of the MOVE reckoning. On my more cynical days, I think that it has more to do with the fact that many of them have published books, made documentaries, and written articles selling a romanticized version of MOVE that the testimonies of the survivors now render void. In the end, I think it all comes back to the specialness that MOVE sold all of us. Many still cling to the idea that what's been revealed in the last three and a half months is an anomaly in MOVE's history. Some hold on to the idea of MOVE as a liberation group. However, if one looks honestly at the testimonies and documents that have been presented on this blog, and on the Murder at Ryan's Run podcast, I don't believe that view can be maintained with any degree of intellectual honesty. 

Much of the psychological pyramid scheme that held MOVE together has already crumbled. If one is honest about MOVE's history it becomes clear that the romantic image of MOVE has always been built upon the suffering, forced silence, and death of children. I don't believe a MOVE member, MOVE supporter, or sympathizer can actually listen to the testimonies of Whit, June, Josh, Maria, Salina, Sara, and Rain and feel anything but regret about romanticizing MOVE's history (much less validating your own sense of self through association with the romanticized image). Look deeply into the events that led up to August 8th, 1978, and May 13th, 1985 and it seems clear that Vincent Leaphart was not concerned at all about the children in the basements of Powelton Village and Osage Ave.  I hope that the veneer of MOVE continues to be chipped away; that more people will distance themselves from the pyramid and tell the truth of what they know so that the survivors can get the transparency, acknowledgment, and healing that they deserve. 

The top of the pyramid: Alberta (L) and Ria (R), at Alberta's wedding to Gary Wonderlin less than two months after Alberta's ex-husband, John Gilbride, was murdered

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Historical Document: MOVE Letter about John Africa from the mid-1980s

This is an internal MOVE letter written about John Africa (referred to within MOVE as "The Coordinator"). From the context of the letter, it appears to be from some time in the mid-1980s, before Vincent Leaphart/John Africa was killed on Osage Ave. in 1985. I'm posting this here to reference in a future post, but the document also stands alone. This letter highlights the way that Vincent Leaphart was viewed to have supernatural powers, to be able to have absolute knowledge of pre-historical events. Within MOVE it's believed that John Africa has always existed. At first glance, it seems as though MOVE members are using the name John Africa as another name for God in this context because they surely couldn't believe that Vincent Leaphart, who they call John Africa, has always existed. However, after spending enough time in MOVE it becomes clear that that is, in fact, what is believed. Current MOVE leaders, Alberta and Ria, have often claimed that Leaphart did not actually die on Osage Ave. on May 13th, 1985, but that he made himself invisible and walked right out of the house. 

These claims are not terribly unusual in a religious context. However, in Leaphart's case, this total devotion and veneration allowed him to experiment on children, lead many people to their deaths, justify murders, and tear apart families. My hope in posting documents like this is to provide context so that MOVE can be better understood, and that this will, hopefully, prevent destructive patterns like this from reoccurring in the future. 

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The Night John Was Murdered

On the night John Gilbride was murdered, September 26th, 2002, I was at a MOVE supporter meeting in a crowded room of a twin home in Pennsauken, NJ. I was living in the house, as were other MOVE supporters at the time. The home was owned by longtime MOVE supporter, Gary Wonderlin. Though these events were fully reported in last week's episode of "Murder at Ryan's Run" they feel worthy of a bit of exploration here too. 

The small room was crowded with over a dozen people and things felt tense. We were all there to strategize about how to protect MOVE in what we thought may be a confrontation similar to the one on May 13th, 1985. John was scheduled to have an unsupervised visit with Zack, his son with MOVE's leader, Alberta Africa, the next day and we knew that MOVE would not allow that to happen. The windows at MOVE's Kingsessing headquarters had been covered in slats for weeks and MOVE was ready for war. 

Many of us in the room had, unfortunately, been heavily participating in the campaign of character assassination and harrassment of John Gilbride for years. We'd been in dozens of MOVE supporter meetings together, but this one was particularly strange. For one, this is the only meeting that I can ever remember taking place at Gary Wonderlin's house in Pennsauken. Most of the MOVE supporters lived in Philly. On top of that, MOVE was preparing for a confrontation, and until this point had wanted supporters staying as close to headquarters as possible in case police tried to enter the house. For the past month I'd spent most of my time crashing at a house at 45th and Springfield in West Philadelphia so that I could get to headquarters in minutes. 

To make things stranger, this meeting had no agenda from MOVE's heirarchy, specifically Ria and Bert. MOVE is very heirarchical and, typically, if a MOVE member wasn't present at a MOVE supporter meeting we would be given specific directives from leadership on how to steer the meeting while giving the appearance of group decision making. For this particular meeting we were given no direction from Ria and Bert. However, Ria was very clear that the meeting needed to take place at Gary's house. The order was given, and most of the supporters drove over the bridge from Philly into South Jersey for this meeting with no clear purpose. 

The meeting began around 8 pm and meandered on until sometime around 10, maybe later. This would all just be a strange footnote, something I'd likely not even remember, if John hadn't been murdered four miles away roughly an hour after the meeting ended. The next morning when we heard the news of the murder some of us were so concerned by the proximity, in time and distance, of our meeting to the murder that we checked in with one another to confirm alibis. 

I was a true-believer at the time. I was so enamored with MOVE that I didn't consciously allow myself to think about the fact that Alberta very likely had John killed. It wasn't until years later, reflecting on these events, that I realized that Bert and Ria were attempting to set supporters up as suspects. The fact that we had never before had a meeting at that house, and the proximity of Gary's house to John's apartment seems far too convenient to be a coincidence. 

Until hearing last week's podcast episode I was unaware of the experience of former MOVE supporter Tony Allen dropping by MOVE's headquarters on his way to the meeting. In the weeks previous to that night MOVE members had been on watch in front of the house 24 hours a day. We've since learned from June (formerly Pixie Africa) that MOVE men were also stationed on the roof with guns. That evening Tony stopped by and found the post in the front yard abandoned. In the previous month I'd driven by MOVE headquarters dozens of times at all hours of the day (supporters were doing 24 hour driving patrols of the neighborhood) and in all that time I never saw that post abandoned, even for a minute. 

All of these aligned circumstantial pieces lead me to believe that the level of security at MOVE's Kingsessing Ave. headquarters had shifted because the leadership knew that within a few hours the custody case, and the threat of potential confrontation, would be over. We, as supporters, were moved into place as pawns, easily sacrificed in the interest of protecting the queen. 

Alberta has a history of sacrificing supporters in order to cover for actions she orchestrated. In March of 2000, while being cross-examined during a custody hearing, she was asked about a major event in the harrassment campaign against John Gilbride's parents; the fliering of their entire neighborhood with fliers making some very serious, and false, claims. I took part in this reprehensible action and know first hand, based on receiving orders from her, that Alberta organized the entire event. At trial Alberta blamed the harrasment campaign on MOVE supporter Tony Allen, and acted as if she had no control over the supporters. At that very moment there were a dozen MOVE supporters picketing in front of the courthouse at her demand. This exchange can be found on page 160 of the trial transcript. 

When Alberta insisted that Mario Hardy (formerly Mario Africa) sit next to her at the press conference in MOVE headquarters the morning after John was murdered she knew exactly what she was doing. In the previous week she'd already set Mario up in a position to be in a physical altercation with John. The altercation resulted in a police report being filed. By pulling Mario into the spotlight that morning she knew that she was putting him in  postion to be a suspect. Mario had been pushing back, trying to protect his kids from MOVE, and Alberta had the leverage to keep him in check. 

When June (formerly Pixie Africa) started opening up to my wife, Maiga, and me in March of 2021 she told us that Alberta often blamed John's murder on whichever MOVE supporter she was angry with at the time. When Tony Allen left MOVE and began challenging them publicly in 2004 Alberta would tell people that Tony had killed John. When Mario left the next year she told people at MOVE headquarters that Mario killed John. And apparently, when I began pushing back against MOVE leadership the same was said about me. 

Some have voiced concern over the desire that I, and many of the survivors, have expressed; that evidence will surface, and that Alberta and Ria will be arrested for the murder of John Gilbride, the psychological and sexual abuse of children, and a myriad of financial crimes. I understand why many in the activist circles that have gravitated to MOVE wince at that. I understand how deeply troubling the US criminal justice system is. However, many of the survivors will not feel safe as long as Alberta and Ria are free, and the Gilbride family (and many others) deserve justice. 

Some have even said that we're calling for the arrest of leaders in the Black liberation movement. This is an area that is much more clear; Alberta, Ria, and even John Africa have nothing to do with Black liberation. MOVE has nothing to do with liberation. Alberta is a fraud; a con artist who's exploited radical politics for personal gain and would not have lost a night's sleep if one of us had ended up in prison for the rest of our lives. She would have found a way to turn a profit from it, happily selling t-shirts with our faces on them, claiming to fight to free us while refusing to pay attorneys, and going on European vacations. For 33 years Alberta has run a cult that operates as a crime family and disguises itself as a liberation group. Based on what I've learned from the survivors I don't believe that Alberta has a conscience, but I'm really hoping that someone who knows something does. 

Photo of John Gilbride's car, taken on 9/27/2002, the morning after he was murdered while sitting in the driver's seat

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19 Years Later - Gilbride Family Statement

 Last week marked 19 years since John Gilbride was murdered. Here's the statement released by the Gilbride family on the anniversary:

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Tragedy and its Aftermath

Nineteen years ago today, John Gilbride was murdered. Sometime around 11 pm on September 26th, 2002 John pulled into the parking spot in front of his apartment in the Ryans Run apartment complex in Maple Shade, New Jersey. The rain was falling hard and he'd just finished a long day working at the Philadelphia airport. Before he could even turn off the engine or take off his seat belt he was shot multiple times in his face and chest at point-blank range with what was likely a semi-automatic with a silencer. For 19 years his family has waited for justice. 

Earlier this week, on September 20th, Charles Sims, known for most of his life as Chuck Africa, passed away after a long struggle with cancer. Chuck was released from prison in 2020 after serving over 41 years in prison for the death of police officer James Ramp and the wounding of other police and firefighters during the confrontation between MOVE and police on August 8th, 1978. MOVE was founded only 6 years earlier in 1972 by Chuck's uncle, Vincent Leaphart. Chuck was only 12 years old when he became involved with MOVE. 

Yesterday, Mike Africa Jr. and Mike and Debbie Davis (formerly Debbie Africa and Mike Africa Sr.) renounced MOVE in an article in the Guardian titled "Disenchanted Move members have quit the Black liberation group." All three former MOVE members acknowledge that cult dynamics within MOVE extend all the way back to the leadership of John Africa/Vincent Leaphart. 

Up until the publication of the Guardian article I planned to write a post exclusively dedicated to John Gilbride on this 19th anniversary of his murder. I'm a bit conflicted because I regret that his life, and who he was as an individual, are so often overshadowed by his time in MOVE and the circumstances of his murder. However, I'm committed to raising awareness about the circumstances that led to his murder, and feel that justice for John is inextricably linked with the subject of the article in the Guardian. For this reason, I've decided to dedicate this post to delving more deeply into my thoughts on the history of MOVE than I have in previous writings in the interest of trying to allow for as much reconciliation and redemption as is possible after so much tragedy. In the future, I hope to dedicate more time to writing specifically about John Gilbride as an individual and the tremendous loss that was suffered when his life was stolen 19 years ago. 

When I left MOVE intellectually in 2007 I immediately began researching the history of MOVE in order to understand what I had become involved in. I became a devout MOVE supporter in my teens and up until 2007, I had mostly only read MOVE-approved versions of MOVE's history. 

When my wife, Maiga, and I began communicating with June, Josh, and Whit in March of 2021 about the abuse they had suffered in MOVE I was shocked by what they had experienced. Their testimonies fit in with patterns that had been mentioned in documents and newspaper articles I'd read but had hoped were exaggerations. Since March I've been digging much more deeply and have also been able to access primary source MOVE documents, many of which had never previously been viewed outside of the inner circle of the group. I'll be linking to a few of them here and will be posting many more of them to this blog in the future. 

Understanding MOVE in this new context provides insight into why so much tragedy has followed in MOVE's wake. Hopefully, it will help those of us who dedicated so much of our lives to heal and to speak honestly about the tragedies that are still open wounds. 

My understanding is that the persona of John Africa was a co-creation of Vincent Leaphart and Donald Glassey when they founded MOVE in 1972. John Africa was a romanticized and caricatured version of Vincent Leaphart that took on a life of its own. As Glassey and Leaphart discussed and created MOVE's philosophy, the John Africa character took on increasingly mythic proportions until, eventually, John Africa and God were synonymous. 

In the beginning, MOVE shared many similarities with other radical organizations emerging at that time, but the religious nature of MOVE added a dimension that made them unorthodox, even amongst radical organizations of the early '70s. While MOVE's position has always been that Vincent Leaphart was all-knowing and that the strategy and philosophy of John Africa were always known by Leaphart, I believe that Leaphart and Glassey were making it up on the fly. When Leaphart, in his early 40s, began sending teenagers and people in their early-20s out to protest against the school boards, zoos, and leftist public intellectuals, I believe that he enjoyed and became addicted to the power that he felt in being obeyed in this way. 

As John Africa's/Leaphart's character received more religious devotion and loyalty he began to fully believe in his own mythology and became confident that MOVE could indeed defeat the system. Leaphart's conception of the system, however, was quite different than that of most revolutionary organizations. According to Leaphart, the system was everything humanity did that went against the natural world. This included cooking food, wearing clothes, and even speaking human languages. Leaphart's goal was not to overthrow the US government but to permanently destroy civilization and take humanity back to a state before our Homo Erectus ancestors harnessed fire, over a million years ago. Leaphart believed that the system was so evil that anything he needed to do to destroy it, including and especially lying, was morally justified. 

From 1972 to 1975 MOVE mainly held demonstrations, had conflicts with their Powelton Village neighbors, and spread the teachings of John Africa. The 1976 death of Life Africa is a turning point in MOVE's history as it provided justification for MOVE's increasing militancy. The death of Life Africa is an incredibly difficult subject but I've chosen to include it here because of the way that MOVE used the death of Life as a mandate to intensify their confrontation with police. Questioning MOVE's version of events is in no way intended to endorse Rizzo's police force, which was as racist and brutal as MOVE has claimed. This is a case of MOVE taking a just cause-protesting police brutality-  and exploiting it to advance an agenda that has everything to do with the whims of Vincent Leaphart and little to do with the cause. 

MOVE's claim has always been that three-week-old Life was murdered by police when police attacked MOVE members in front of MOVE headquarters. Life's mother, Janine Africa was knocked to the ground, and MOVE claims that police stomped on Life Africa, killing him. However, other stories about what happened to Life have always circulated within MOVE. In the interview that former MOVE member Valerie Brown gave in May of 1985, she stated that Life died of natural causes, and likely wouldn't have died had MOVE sought medical help. Instead, MOVE staged a confrontation with police and accused police of the murder of Life Africa in order to escalate tensions and advance their revolutionary platform. 

This is a pattern that continues throughout MOVE's history. I'm painting in very broad brush strokes here, and as this project continues I plan to post and analyze more documents. However, for the purposes of this post, I'll say that I believe that the events in MOVE's history that followed the death of Life Africa happened exactly as Vincent Leaphart intended them to happen. The intended result of the August 8th, 1978 confrontation was for MOVE members to go to prison for as long as possible and become martyrs for a cause that MOVE could mobilize others to rally around. There are many reasons to believe this, but one of the simplest is that Leaphart instructed the MOVE 9 to request a bench trial instead of a jury trial, nearly guaranteeing their conviction and the longest sentence possible. At this point, it has been publicly acknowledged by many MOVE members, including Mike Africa Jr., that current MOVE leaders, Ria and Bert, never intended for the MOVE 9 to be released from prison. I don't believe that Vincent Leaphart ever intended for them to come home either. 

The actions of MOVE members in this period cannot be understood without factoring in the messianic nature of the group, the true belief of MOVE members that John Africa was God, and that he had the power to overthrow the system and restore humanity to an Edenic state. Following the 1978 confrontation, Vincent Leaphart was put on trial in the Federal courts in a 1981 trial which MOVE refers to as "John Africa versus the System." The fact that Leaphart beat Federal authorities on bombmaking, weapons running, and conspiracy charges that would have landed him in prison for the rest of his life still seems nothing short of miraculous. This victory only increased MOVE members' faith in him and his own faith in his plan to overthrow the system. 

The absolute tragedy of the bombing of Osage Avenue and the deaths of the 11 people who perished in 6221 Osage Ave. is difficult to write about for a number of reasons. In speaking honestly about how I feel about the events of that day it's important to note that nothing I say about MOVE or about the intentions of Vincent Leaphart excuse police violence or the racism that is rampant in policing and the criminal justice system. However, I feel that for Zanetta, Katricia, Tomasso, Phil, and Delicia's (the children who were killed on Osage Ave.) lives to be honored we have to acknowledge that they were prisoners of MOVE and not MOVE members. Whit Sims was a child on Osage Ave. and has already spoken publicly about what it was like living in the basement of that house under the tyrrany of Vincent Leaphart. 

I firmly believe that Leaphart intended for every person inside of the house to perish on that day. By dropping the bomb the police were merely playing into his hand. This may seem far-fetched, but Leaphart believed that if he could get the police to kill MOVE people in front of the whole world, that it would trigger a global revolution, and that the remaining MOVE members would act as a vanguard to overthrow civilization itself. I'll be developing this idea more in the future. For now, I'll post two documents that I don't believe have previously been publicly available. This first document is a MOVE letter to the Osage residents from May of 1985 and explicitly states that MOVE planned to force the police to kill them. The second document was not passed out on Osage Ave in the weeks leading up to the bombing, like the previous document. This document is a MOVE letter about one of their hunger strikes. The letter explains MOVE's strategy to speed up their own deaths during hunger strikes in order to lay those deaths at the feet of the system. The two letters together show MOVE's pattern of creating tragedies to later exploit for greater credibility and justification for future actions. 

The tragedy of May 13th, 1985, and the death of John Africa left a power vacuum within MOVE that Leaphart's wife Alberta was eager to fill when she came home from prison in 1988. However, Alberta had two things that Leaphart didn't: the political mandate that MOVE was afforded due to May 13th and millions of dollars. As MOVE's new leader, Alberta was able to absorb much of the reverence and loyalty that had previously only been afforded to Leaphart. All of the parents who lost children on May 13th were incarcerated. When they won millions of dollars in a civil suit against the city Alberta was happy to take control of the trust to spend as she saw fit. 

This is the context in which June, Josh, Rain, Sara, Salina, and Maria were born (Whit was born under the leadership of Leaphart). This is also the context that John Gilbride was entering into when he became obsessed with MOVE as a teenager, and when he married Alberta in 1990. 

There are some encouraging aspects to the recent article in the Guardian. It's hopeful to me that Mike and Debbie Davis, and Mike Africa Jr. have publicly acknowledged that MOVE has always had cult tendencies (I would say that MOVE has always been a cult, but I'm trying not to put words into their mouths). However, there is so much that the article still gets wrong. For one, MOVE has never been a Black Liberation group. However, what I find most disconcerting is the downplaying of the testimonies of abuse by MOVE leadership and the near erasure of John Gilbride from the story. 

The article makes it seem as though the worst thing that happened within MOVE is that teenage girls (or 12-year-old girls in June's case) were forced to have sex, become pregnant, and give birth to children that MOVE leadership would have control over. This would be horrific enough but is far from the extent of the abuse. Josh has stated that young men in MOVE were forced to go to sex workers starting in their early teens in order to prove that they were not gay (homophobia is rampant in John Africa's teachings). The survivors have also stated that MOVE children are taught to perform sex acts on one another, starting as early as three or four years old and that the word for this within MOVE is "mooching." They have stated that MOVE leadership psychologically tortured them and that Alberta threatened to have June killed on many occasions, starting when she was only 13. 

The fact that Ed Pilkington of the Guardian references this blog as documenting the stories of the survivors of MOVE, but never bothered to reach out to me, June, Whit, Josh, Salina, Sara, Rain, or Maria is disconcerting, to say the least. The near-erasure of John Gilbride from the story is equally troubling. People continue to try to remove the murder of John Gilbride from MOVE's story, but it can't be done if you want to tell the story honestly. Mike Africa Jr. knew John well and, like me, participated heavily in the campaign against John and his family. Mike and Debbie both participated in the campaign against John from prison and I would hope that they have deep regrets about that. It's important that those regrets be publicly stated and accounted for. 

When we released the first "Leaving MOVE Group Statement" on July 2nd, 2021 we made the following requests: 

• We’re also asking other current and former MOVE members to speak out about the real history of MOVE in order to protect June, Josh, Whit, and many others who have suffered as a result of being born into MOVE. We recognize that many MOVE members will be uncomfortable with inner circle knowledge being revealed publicly. However, continuing to promote the romanticized past of MOVE creates the conditions that allow for the ongoing suffering of many who were born into MOVE, as well as other victims of MOVE such as the Gilbride family. 

• We are calling on MOVE members of good conscience to begin to tell the truth about MOVE history, including the events that led up to the 1978 and 1985 confrontations, the treatment of children, and any information related to the harassment and/or murder of John Gilbride. 

I understand how difficult it must be to speak about such painful history publicly. I understand that Mike Sr. was uncomfortable with aspects of MOVE even before the 1978 confrontation and he continued to stay in MOVE because he didn't want to lose his family. I empathize with that and I genuinely care deeply for Mike Sr. I'm very glad that I've had the opportunity to know him. I wish that he had not had to go through all that he has in order to get where he is today. However, if more people had been able to speak plainly about what was actually happening within MOVE in the early days then so many tragedies, including the 11 lives lost on May 13th could have been avoided. If people had spoken out against the corrupt leadership of Alberta earlier then John Gilbride would still be alive today.

Though I understand why saying this will make most people in movements that have supported MOVE uncomfortable, the survivors who were born into MOVE have clearly stated that they believe that Ria and Alberta should be in prison. June still does not feel safe coming out of hiding. Many of them still have nightmares about the things that were done to them and the things they were forced to do. It would be hard to overstate the psychological torture that was inflicted on them. There are still so many open wounds and so many truths that need to be told.

The survivors would like the first-generation MOVE members to explain what M1 really is. June's life was threatened numerous times by Alberta and she needs to know what kind of a threat M1 poses now. We know that former MOVE member William Whitney Smith died under suspicious conditions before he was supposed to testify against Vincent Leaphart in the Federal trial and that former MOVE member Ted Williamson died under similarly suspicious conditions after turning against the group and having his skull fractured by MOVE members beating him in the basement of the Poweleton Village headquarters. Is this a fate that June should be seriously concerned about? Was this the work of M1?

When 17-year old John Gilbride encountered MOVE through watching the tragedy of Osage Ave. on TV and began sneaking down to Philly to observe Ramona Africa's trial he didn't understand the context he was entering. When I became obsessed with MOVE through Mumia's writing and began taking trips up to Philly as a teenager I was similarly unaware. June, Josh, Whit, Sara, Maria, Salina, Rain and many others were born into these patterns that began with those first meetings between Glassey and Leaphart. The patterns that the survivors were courageous enough to shatter were nearly 50 years old. Thanks to their bravery and commitment to the truth it seems that much of the spell has broken. But where do we go from here? In order to continue this process of truth and reconciliation, it's necessary for more members, especially first-generation members to speak out. If more of MOVE's history is illuminated the survivors may feel safer moving on with their lives, and the Gilbride family may finally get the justice that they desperately deserve. 

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Historical Document: MOVE Hunger Strike Letter to Media

This is a MOVE letter to the media from the early 1980s regarding a hunger strike by the MOVE women at SCI-Muncy. I'm posting this here to reference in a future post, but the document also stands alone. To my knowledge, this document has never previously been publicly available. The end of the letter is of specific note as the letter acknowledges that the MOVE women were intentionally working to speed up their own deaths and placing blame on the media. The letter makes it seem like this was a choice made by the women at SCI-Muncy, but none of them would have done anything of this nature without orders from John Africa. To be clear, John Africa gave these women orders to speed up their own deaths in a hunger strike in order to protest the prison demanding that they consent to having blood taken. All of these women were in their early 30s and most of them had young children waiting for them to be released. Most of those children perished in the house on May 13th, 1985. Here's an exerpt from the end of the letter:

"RIGHT NOW THERE ARE SIX WOMEN SUFFERING VERY BAD IN MUNCY, WORSE THEN IS THOUGHT, BECAUSE YOU SEE WHAT IS NOT KNOW BY THEM DOCTORS IN MUNCY, IS THAT THE MOVE WOMEN ARE EXERCISING VIGOROUSLY, TO BRING ABOUT A CRISIS SITUATION IN 30 OR 40 DAYS THAT THE DOCTORS THINK WILL HAPPEN IN 60 OR 70 DAYS, THE MOVE WOMEN ARE NOT WAITING TO DIE SLOWLY, THEY HAVE SAID THAT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO DRAG THIS THING OUT, AND THEY ARE EXERCISING TO SPEED UP THE LOST OF RESISTANCE, WE HAVE APPEALED TO THE WOMEN TO GO GRADUAL WITH THIS DEMONSTRATION, BUT THEY HAVE REFUSED, SAYING THAT THEY ARE TIRED OF PEOPLE WALKING ALL OVER MOVE'S RELIGION, AND THAT THEY ARE GOING TO PUT A STOP TO IT ONCE AND FOR ALL, EVEN IF IT MEANS CYCLING, AND MALMED, KLEIN, MCDERMOTT, AND MANY OF YOU NEWSMEDIA PEOPLE ARE TO BLAME."

Historical Document: Letter to Osage Avenue Residents

This document was distributed by MOVE from their headquarters at 6221 Osage Ave. in the week leading up to the bombing on May 13th, 1985. I'm posting it to the blog now so that it can be referenced in a future blog post, but the document also stands on its own. To my knowledge, this is the first time this letter has been publicly available, and it flies in the face of the story that MOVE has been telling about itself since 1985. There's a lot that needs to be analyzed in this letter, but there's one line that's of specific note:

"WE'LL MAKE THESE MUTHA-FUCKAS KILL US, BUT WE GONE DO SOME KILLIN TOO..."