Photo credits: Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer
In a long-overdue act of accepting responsibility, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania chose to own up to massacring a Black neighborhood 35 years ago.
Any Black American person who is old enough traumatically remembers the May 13, 1985 siege of West Philadelphia, which targeted MOVE, a naturist Black liberation organization. On that day, the city of Philadelphia sought to evict MOVE from its headquarters; a property located at 6221 Osage Avenue in West Philly.
MOVE’s membership refused to leave the property after a daylong confrontation with the city over what it called an illegitimate eviction service. The Philadelphia Police Department was then summoned and eventually, a standoff situation unfolded as the nation witnessed. Local and national media outlets were reporting as the situation progressed.
After the collapse of peaceful negotiations came to end the standoff, Philadelphia’s predominantly white police department resorted to absolute savagery in its efforts to crush MOVE’s anti-eviction campaign once and for all.
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Philadelphia police summoned one of their helicopters to hover above 6221 Osage where MOVE was holed up. A bomb was dropped from the police chopper on the roof of the property, which leveled the compound and caused a huge explosion. The flames from the bomb blast quickly spread and torched many other homes in the predominantly Black neighborhood.
In the end, 61 residences were burned in flames. There were also 11 dead mostly Black victims, including five children. This obviously caused a public outcry in Philadelphia and all across the nation. For the first time ever in America, a locally-elected government was responsible for the massacre of its own citizens.
Decades later, on November 12, 2020, Philly’s city council drafted a resolution, which paved the way for the municipality to formally apologize after its blitzkrieg of a Black neighborhood during the infamous 1985 MOVE eviction dispute.
“The resolution, approved almost unanimously (Councilmember Brian O’Neill said he opposed it), represents the first formal apology offered by the city for the May 13, 1985, bombing. It also establishes the anniversary of the bombing as ‘an annual day of observation, reflection, and recommitment,’” reads a Monday (November 16) report by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.
Source: The City of Philadelphia Will Formally Apologize for Murdering Blacks in 1985 Bombing
