[WATCH] Activists Take Back The Street Named After The Black Mayor Who Bombed MOVE | Colorlines

On May 13, 1985, under the leadership of Philadelphia’s first Black mayor, W. Wilson Goode Sr., police dropped a bomb on the home of the Black liberation and environmentalist group MOVE. Due to confrontations with police and the complaints of neighbors, MOVE had been declared a terrorist organization by the city.

Eleven MOVE members—five children and six adults—were killed in the bombing. In a resulting fire that the mayor allowed to burn for hours, more than 60 homes in and around the 6200 block of Osage Avenue were destroyed.