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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/07/chuck-sims-africa-move-9-freed-philadelphia">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/07/chuck-sims-africa-move-9-freed-philadelphia</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Chuck Sims Africa freed: final jailed
Move 9 member released from prison</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Ed Pilkington - February 7,
2020<br>
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<p>One of the great open wounds of the black liberation
struggle of the 1970s has finally been healed with the
release of the last member of the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/18/move-9-delbert-orr-africa-released-prison"
data-link-name="in body link">Move 9</a>, the group of
radicals rounded up in a <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/philadelphia"
data-link-name="in body link">Philadelphia</a> police
siege in 1978 and held behind bars for more than four
decades.</p>
<p>Chuck Sims Africa, 59, walked free from the Fayette
state correctional institution in La Belle, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pennsylvania"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Pennsylvania</a>, on
Friday morning. The youngest of the incarcerated group,
he has been in custody since shortly after he turned 18.</p>
<p>His freedom marked his reunion with his family for the
first time in almost 42 years. It was also historic, as
it closed a chapter that had remained unfinished since
the black power movement erupted in the late 1960s.</p>
<p>Alongside the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/30/black-panthers-prison-interviews-african-american-activism"
data-link-name="in body link">Black Panthers</a>,
Philadelphia’s Move organisation was central to the
volatile and at times violent struggle for black
equality that lasted until the 1980s.</p>
<p>Members of the organisation regarded themselves – and
still do to this day – as part of a family dedicated to
race equality, with all members taking the last name
“Africa”. Part Panthers and part eco-hippies, they also
had a commitment to environmental justice that was ahead
of its time.</p>
<p>Mike Africa Jr, the son of two of the Move 9, said
Chuck’s release put an end to a long and gruelling
campaign. “We will never have to shout ‘Free the Move
9!’ ever again. It’s been 41 years, and now we’ll never
have to say it.”</p>
<p>For Mike Africa, who is also Chuck’s nephew, the
release was especially poignant. He was <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/31/debbie-sims-africa-mike-jr-black-liberation-orphan-move-nine-philadelphia"
data-link-name="in body link">born in a cell</a> five
weeks after his mother, Debbie Sims Africa, Chuck’s
sister, was rounded up in the 1978 siege and
incarcerated – she gave birth to him unbeknown to the
prison guards and kept him hidden with her in the cell
for the first few days of his life.</p>
<p>The Guardian began investigating the prolonged
imprisonment of the Move 9 in 2018 as part of an
examination into <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/black-power-behind-bars"
data-link-name="in body link">black power behind bars</a>.
At that time all the surviving members of the group were
still in custody in various Pennsylvania prisons.</p>
<p>Members of the group described in letters, emails and
prison interviews how they had endured so many years
inside while keeping their spirits high. Janine Phillips
Africa said that she raised therapy dogs in her cell and
grew vegetables in the prison yard, avoiding birthdays
or holidays that reminded her of the passage of time.</p>
<p>“The years are not my focus,” she wrote in a letter to
the Guardian. “I keep my mind on my health and the
things I need to do day by day.”</p>
<p>Delbert Orr Africa said: “We’ve suffered the worst that
this system can throw at us – decades of imprisonment,
loss of loved ones. So we know we are strong.”</p>
<p>Soon after the Guardian began its investigation, the
seven surviving members of the group began to be
released on parole. First up was Debbie Sims Africa, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/18/debbie-sims-africa-free-prison-move-nine-philadelphia-police"
data-link-name="in body link">set free in June 2018</a>.
“We are peaceful people,” she said as she stepped out of
Cambridge Springs prison.</p>
<p>Then the other six began to emerge, one after the other
like falling dominoes:</p>
<p>* <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/23/mike-africa-sr-black-liberation-prisoner-released-move-9"
data-link-name="in body link">Mike Africa Sr</a>,
October 2018</p>
<p>* <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/25/move-9-black-radicals-women-freed-philadelphia"
data-link-name="in body link">Janine Phillips Africa
and Janet Holloway Africa</a>, May 2019</p>
<p>* <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/23/move-9-member-eddie-goodman-africa-released-prison-41-years"
data-link-name="in body link">Eddie Goodman Africa</a>,
June 2019</p>
<p>* <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/18/move-9-delbert-orr-africa-released-prison"
data-link-name="in body link">Delbert Orr Africa</a>,
January 2020</p>
<p>Chuck Sims Africa completes the set.</p>
<p>The Move 9 were arrested following a massive police
siege of their collective headquarters and home in
Powelton Village, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/philadelphia"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Philadelphia</a>, on
8 August 1978. Hundreds of police officers in Swat teams
armed with machine guns, teargas, bulldozers and water
cannons surrounded the property following a long
standoff with city authorities that saw the group as a
threat to the community.</p>
<p>The siege culminated in a police shootout in which Move
members allegedly returned fire though they denied doing
so. A police officer, James Ramp, was killed in the
crossfire.</p>
<p>Nine members were arrested and held jointly responsible
for Ramp’s death despite forensic evidence showing he
was killed with a single bullet. In 1980 the nine were
convicted of third-degree murder and lesser offenses and
each sentenced to 30 years to life.</p>
<p>Two of the nine – Merle and Phil Africa – died in
prison. The remaining seven fought for many years to
convince parole authorities that they were safe to be
let out, pointing to clean discipline sheets in prison.</p>
<p>Over the past two years there have been no security
incidents relating to any of the paroled individuals.</p>
<p>Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, wrote to
the parole board to support Chuck Africa’s bid for
freedom. He said: “His release will reunite a family
after 40 years and I am convinced he will be a positive
contributing voice to the Philadelphia community.”</p>
<p>Goode, the first black mayor of Philadelphia, was in
that position on 13 May 1985 when the second disaster
relating to Move occurred. Following another prolonged
bout of acrimony between the organisation and its
neighbors and city authorities, the decision was taken
forcibly to evict the group from its latest
headquarters, then in Osage Avenue.</p>
<p>Another shootout broke out, and when that failed to
flush them out police <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/13/osage-avenue-bombing-philadelphia-30-years"
data-link-name="in body link">dropped incendiary bombs</a>
from a helicopter on to the roof of the building. A fire
ensued which was allowed to spread, eventually razing to
the ground 61 homes in the overwhelmingly African
American neighborhood.</p>
<p>Eleven people in the Move house, including five
children, died in the inferno. Chuck Africa’s cousin,
Frank, was among the adults who were killed.</p>
<p>All the paroled members of the Move 9 are now preparing
to mark the 35th anniversary of the tragedy. For the
first time they will be able to commemorate the event
and the relatives and peers they lost outside a prison
cell.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a></div>
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