On Move: State Violence & Displacement
On May 13, 1985 an incendiary device was dropped from a police helicopter onto a housing structure on 6200 Osage Avenue, in West Philadelphia. This, the fever pitch of a series of police atrocities that was hoisted on an organization that was pan-african and labeled radical and terroristic by government authorities. The Move organization, founded by John Africa in the early 1970s, would become a prolific monument against anti-Black violences in Philadelphia, exemplified by Frank Rizzo’s terror on Black and Brown communities.
11 black people lost their life that day, including 5 children and John himself. This would shape the racial politics of our time, in a city with 44.1% of its population being of African descent. I remember being told about this moment early in childhood. I was almost two years old when the bombing took place. Through the years learning about the criminalization of the Move members known as the Move 9. The recent commodification of Osage Avenue--which includes the renaming of the block after Mayor Wilson Goode, Sr., who was one of the responsible parties for the terror on Osage--should raise flags and sound alarms.
Hard to swallow pill: ethical redevelopment is gentrification with a facelift.
Let me explain, a city that systematically reinforces the worst forms of anti-Blackness like Mummers--white and Black--dabbling in minstrelsy or the FOP President calling Black activists “a pack of rabid animals,” can’t also be ethically redeveloping neighborhoods. It’s the worst contradiction ever. Not seeing the full humanity of all who lives in one of the most impoverished cities and then claiming you are building structures for everyone, doesn’t add up. I guess it’s our collective version of newspeak?
In the case of the Move houses on 6200 Osage Ave. The redevelopment has dealt an additional blow to the traumatic events of 1985. Building inaccessible housing in an historically Black neighborhood that experienced a bombing is salt in wounds, to Move survivors, some still incarcerated.
AJR Endeavors were picked to rehab the homes on Osage Avenue, following a request for proposal from the city. According to a Curbed Philly article the homes are selling for between $175,000-$200,000, this in a zip code that according to a PEW report from 2011 has households with a median income of $30-$49,999. West Philadelphia has pockets of communities living in deep poverty and this development is likely to attract outsiders that can afford to purchase a home at this rate.
There has been extensive research that points to the trauma residential displacement causes, this form of displacement typically follows increased and pointed investment in neighborhoods. Philadelphia’s neighborhoods are shifting and the consequences of ethically developing a neighborhood, doesn’t serve to benefit the most marginalized communities. This includes a proposed nature trail by Bartram Gardens to a community Starbucks near Parkside Avenue. Structures and public space possess white cultural norms within institutions that are built in the context of a still segregated city, public space isn’t explicitly welcoming to Black and Brown communities. These spaces are often dominated by people who can access them without hesitation.
Remembering MOVE and the displacement caused by an intentional fire, allows us to peak into the uncomfortable legacy of anti-Blackness that permeates every nook and cranny of life within a major US city. I urge people to learn more about this history and looking forward, challenge the overstated kindness of development in Philadelphia, that doesn’t seek community consensus or reparative investment but rather hinges on a capitalistic trope that assumes development is good for us all.
Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad was born and raised in West Philadelphia, where they currently organize with the Black and Brown Workers Co-op. Mx. Muhammad is also running for City Council At-Large as a write-in candidate in the upcoming Philadelphia municipal primary on May 21, 2019.
