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As a member of Move, he spent four decades in prison and was released in January. His beating by Philadelphia police officers in 1978 was broadcast nationwide. By Neil Genzlinger June 17, 2020 Delbert Africa, a member of the radical group Move who spent more than 40 years in prison after being convicted in a 1978 confrontation with the police in Philadelphia that left a police officer dead, died on Monday at his home in Philadelphia, only months after his release. He was 74. His daughter Yvonne Orr-El and members of the Move organization announced his death at a news conference <https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=710331583064076&ref=watch_permalink>, at which they said Mr. Africa had received inadequate care for a kidney condition while in prison. “Had my father received the treatment he needed,” Ms. Orr-El said at the news conference, “the healthy, strong, smiling, humorous, sarcastic man that I call my father would still be here today.” He was paroled in January. Mr. Africa was one of nine Move members, all black, who were convicted of third-degree murder in the 1978 clash. In surrendering to the police, hands in the air, he was knocked down, kicked and beaten — an arrest captured by cameras and broadcast nationwide. The images became a symbol of police brutality to some, especially in Philadelphia, where police relations with black residents and other minority groups were strained. Three officers were later charged with assault. At their trial, the police commissioner, Joseph O’Neill, testified that the officers’ actions had been justified. “Delbert Africa wasn’t a man, he was a savage,” Commissioner O’Neill said. “When you’re dealing with a savage, you don’t know what he may do. I have seen a person handcuffed and on the ground kick an officer in the groin.” In 1981, as jurors were preparing to hear closing arguments in the case, a judge acquitted the officers in a directed verdict. The Move organization, a largely black religious as well as political group that was often described in the news media with words like “revolutionary” and “anarchist,” coalesced in the 1970s around John Africa, whose original name was Vincent Leaphart. He espoused a back-to-nature, anti-government belief system. The group’s presence at a compound in the Powelton Village section of Philadelphia was a thorn in the side of Mayor Frank Rizzo, a former city police commissioner who had been accused of harassing black residents and condoning brutality against them. The authorities said that the compound was a health hazard and that Move members were stockpiling weapons. In August 1978, as the police tried to evict the group, gunfire broke out, and a police officer, James Ramp, was killed. Mr. Africa and the others charged maintained that a police bullet had killed Officer Ramp. Move re-established itself at another location in the city, and in 1985 the police dropped a bomb on its new compound, igniting a fire that destroyed more than 60 homes. Eleven people died. One was John Africa. Another was Delbert Africa’s daughter Delisha. “I wanted to strike out,” Mr. Africa told The Guardian in a 2018 interview, describing his reaction when he heard the news of the bombing in prison. “I wanted to wreak as much havoc as I could until they put me down. That anger, it brought such a feeling of helplessness.” Delbert Orr was born on April 2, 1946; like other members of Move, he took the surname of the group’s founder. Before encountering Move, Mr. Africa served as an airman in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969, according to Richard Kent Evans, a research associate at Haverford College in the Philadelphia suburbs and author of the new book “MOVE: An American Religion.” Mr. Africa then returned to his hometown, Chicago, and joined the Black Panthers, Dr. Evans said. After he was seriously injured in a car accident, he moved to Philadelphia in March 1970. It was during walks around the block trying to rehabilitate his injured leg and back that he encountered members of Move (who render the name in capital letters) on a street corner, talking their version of revolution. “He attributed his recovery from his car-crash injuries to the teachings of John Africa,” Dr. Evans said by email, “converted to MOVE, adopted a new name, Delbert Africa, and served as MOVE’s Minister of Confrontation and Security.” In that capacity he was the one the police often heard in their various exchanges with the group before the 1978 clash, and that made Mr. Africa a target for a beating when he was arrested, Dr. Evans said. In the interview with The Guardian, Mr. Africa described his arrest: “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 till I came to and a dude was dragging me by my hair and cops started kicking me in the head.” The nine defendants represented themselves in court in an often raucous nonjury trial, and Mr. Africa was outspoken throughout the proceedings. The court, he said at one point, “is racially prejudiced, and society is genocidally bent toward destroying us.” He asked one witness, a police photographer, “Do you know whether you have any black ancestors?” and “Do you have any black friends?” When the presiding judge, Edwin Malmed, announced Mr. Africa’s conviction on a charge of third-degree murder, Mr. Africa screamed, “You are the real murderer, putting us away!” Each of the nine was sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison. Two died in prison. Mr. Africa was the second-to-last to be released. Chuck Africa was released in February. A full list of Delbert Africa’s survivors was not immediately available. When he was paroled in January, Mr. Africa told The Philadelphia Tribune that he remained dismayed by the American justice system. “You still have strong, dedicated and committed people pushing against the system,” he said, “but today it’s worse.” Neil Genzlinger is a writer for the Obituaries Desk. Previously he was a television, film and theater critic. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/us/delbert-africa-dead.html <https://twitter.com/genznyt> _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
