Black revolutionary, MOVE member and former political prisoner Delbert Africa passed away on this day one year ago. He died having only been released from prison for several months, where he spent 42 years suffering for a crime he said he didn’t commit. 
Delbert Africa was one of nine MOVE members sent to prison on third-degree murder charges for the death of Philadelphia police officer James Ramp, shot during the 1978 standoff between MOVE and the Philadelphia police.
During the standoff, James Ramp was killed with a single bullet, but MOVE has always denied that any of its members were responsible and Delbert Africa maintained that he did not fire a gun that day.
Delbert Africa provided one of the astonishing images of the Black liberation struggle when he peacefully emerged from the house with his arms outstretched, as if on the cross, while police officers attacked him.
Delbert Africa described the event: “A cop hit me with his helmet. Smashed my eye. Another cop swung his shotgun and broke my jaw. I went down, and after that I don’t remember anything."
"When I was unconscious one cop pulled me by the hair across the street, one cop started jumping on my head, one started kicking me in the ribs and beating me. Their excuse later on is they thought I was armed. I was naked from the waist up.”
In 1985 the Philadelphia police bombed the MOVE house, killing 11 members, including 5 children, one of them being Delisha, Delbert Africa’s 13-year-old daughter.
You can read more on the bombing here: bit.ly/3gtO8og
You can read more on the bombing here: bit.ly/3gtO8og
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