October 2023

First Permanent Exhibit Opens

• Philadelphia opens “Remembering MOVE: May 13, 1985”
• Located at Municipal Services Building
• First permanent city acknowledgment
• Includes historical documentation, victim profiles, community impact

Response:

• Some family members attend
• Others boycott, citing inadequate reparations
• Exhibit seen as important but insufficient
• No reparations program established

May 13, 2024

39th Anniversary

• Vigils held on Osage Avenue
• Survivors and families gather
• Continuing demands for accountability
• Edward Goodman Africa still in prison after 46 years

May 13, 2025

40th Anniversary

• Major commemorations across Philadelphia
• National media coverage
• PBS and other documentaries air
• City acknowledges bombing as “lasting wound in Philadelphia’s conscience”

Mayor’s Statement:

• Expresses regret
• Promises to “never forget”
• Does not announce reparations program
• Does not call for Edward Africa’s release

Activist Demands:

• Formal City Council apology resolution
• Comprehensive reparations fund
• Release of Edward Africa
• Release of all remaining classified documents
• Required police training on MOVE bombing

Media Coverage Emphasizes:

• Eleven dead, five children
• Sixty-one homes destroyed
• Still no criminal charges ever filed
• Still no individual accountability

November 2025

Current Status:

• Edward Goodman Africa remains in prison at age 72
• 47 years incarcerated for third-degree murder
• Health failing; supporters call continued incarceration death sentence
• All officials involved in bombing either deceased or retired with pensions
• No reparations program established
• Most Commission recommendations never implemented
• Civilian oversight created 2020 but underfunded and weak

Why This Matters: Forty years. Two generations. And we’re still here. Still demanding accountability. Still naming names. Still asking: when? When does justice come? When do officials face consequences? When do families get reparations? When does Edward Africa come home? I’m 71 years old. I’ve been watching this pattern my whole life. It doesn’t end until we make it end.

Pattern Recognition: Timeline Analysis

What This Timeline Shows:

1. Escalation Without Mediation

• 1978 confrontation creates enmity
• 1981-1985 tensions build
• No serious negotiation attempted
• Both sides prepare for violence
• Result: Preventable tragedy

2. Institutional Failure Cascade

• Police fail to de-escalate
• Fire department fails to protect civilians
• Mayor’s office fails to ensure adequate planning
• Emergency management fails to coordinate
• Result: Operational catastrophe

3. Accountability Evasion

• Officials resign but keep pensions
• Commission condemns but recommends no charges
• Grand jury scathes but doesn’t indict
• Civil case finds liability but no criminal prosecution
• Result: Complete impunity

4. Continuing Harm

• MOVE 9 serve excessive sentences
• Birdie Africa dies from trauma
• Remains mishandled for 36 years
• Edward Africa still imprisoned after 47 years
• Result: Violence doesn’t end

5. Reform Resistance

• Commission makes recommendations
• Most never implemented
• Civilian oversight takes 35 years
• Police culture unchanged
• Result: Same patterns persist

The Pattern: State violence → Official condemnation → No accountability → Pattern repeats

I’ve seen this pattern from Birmingham (1963) to Philadelphia (1985) to Ferguson (2014) to Minneapolis (2020). The dates change. The names change. The pattern doesn’t.

Documentation is how we break it. Accountability is how we break it. Refusal to forget is how we break it.

What Happens Next?

Ongoing Investigations:

• True Signal Media has filed FOIA requests with:
  • FBI (MOVE organizational files)
  • Philadelphia Police Department (operational records)
  • Pennsylvania State Police (helicopter/pilot records)
  • Philadelphia Fire Department (decision-making documents)
  • Medical Examiner (remains chain of custody)

What We’re Looking For:

• Who exactly authorized the bomb
• What FBI knew and when
• Why grand jury really didn’t indict
• When remains ended up at universities
• What classified documents still exist

What Should Happen:

• Edward Africa released on compassionate grounds
• Formal City Council apology resolution
• Comprehensive reparations program
• Full document declassification
• Required police training on MOVE bombing
• National precedent set: this must never happen again

For The Record

This timeline represents the documented history of how Philadelphia came to bomb its own neighborhood, kill eleven people including five children, and allow every responsible official to escape criminal accountability.

Forty years later, the fire is out. The ruins are rebuilt. The officials are retired.

But the truth remains. The pattern remains. The demand for accountability remains.

I was 31 when this happened. I’m 71 now. I’ve spent forty years documenting institutional violence and watching officials escape consequences.

This timeline is for the record. This timeline is for Tree, Delisha, Netta, Little Phil, Tomaso, and the six adults who died. This timeline is for the 250 families displaced. This timeline is for Birdie Africa, who survived the fire but not the trauma. This timeline is for the MOVE 9, who served four decades for a death they maintain was police crossfire.

This timeline is so that when I’m gone, when everyone who remembers is gone, the documentation remains.

Because documentation is resistance. Memory is accountability. And truth has no borders.

Truth Has No Borders.