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Richard Kent Evans tells the story of MOVE, a small, little-known, mostly African American group that emerged in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. In 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department -- working in concert with federal and state law enforcement -- attacked a home that MOVE members shared in West Philadelphia. Eleven people were killed in the attack, including five children. Many MOVE members thought of themselves as belonging to a religion, but to others, most importantly the courts, MOVE was anything but. Evans uses MOVE's story as a lens through which to examine how we decide what constitutes a genuine religious tradition, and the enormous consequences of that decision.
It was local! It was national! It was international! All over the country and all over the world reporting was non-stop about a black mayor in Philadelphia who allowed a bomb to be dropped on members of MOVE who were also black. Eleven people were killed, six adults and five children. Whether your TV was turned on in the middle of the day, or the middle of the night, it was there. Reportedly the Tribune de Geneve, a Swiss newspaper called it "Blunder American Style", while a Japanese headline read "Police Drop Bomb on Black Extremists". A team of newspaper and TV reporters from Russia came into Philly looking for my sister LaVerne and I. They'd seen us on TV, couldn't find us when they got here, so called WHAT, a black Talk station here. Someone from the station called me, said they were here, but wouldn't give them our number instead took theirs.
On one of the darkest days in the history Philadelphia, men and women battled gunfire, tear gas, fire and angry mobs. The men and women were journalists covering the MOVE disaster on May 13, 1985, an eviction gone wrong that claimed 11 lives and left hundreds of people homeless after their entire neighborhood burned down. This is the story of the resourceful journalists of WCAU-TV who brought the story live to the people of Philadelphia despite danger and obstacles placed by both MOVE and the city.
"A balanced, well-written account which provides the best overall understanding of these events." ?Library Journal "Compelling."?Publishers Weekly "A solid report from an unusual perspective."?Kirkus Reviews "A balanced view."?Booklist On a narrow street in a working-class neighborhood, the police are held at bay by a small band of armed radicals. Two assaults have already failed. After a morning-long battle involving machine guns, explosives, and tear gas, the radicals remain defiant. In a command post across the street from the boarded-up row house that serves as the militants? headquarters, the beleaguered police commissioner weighs his options and decides on a new plan. He will bomb the ...
Religions are at their core about creating certainty. But what happens when groups lose control of their destiny? Whether it leads to violence, or to nonviolent innovations, as found in minority religions following the death of their founders or leaders, uncertainty and insecurity can lead to great change in the mission and even teachings of religious groups. This book brings together an international range of contributors to explore the uncertainty faced by new and minority religious movements as well as non-religious fringe groups. The groups considered in the book span a range of religious traditions (Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam), old and new spiritual formations such as esote...
The weekly source of African American political and entertainment news.
The weekly source of African American political and entertainment news.
From Frederick Douglass to Angela Davis, “natural hair” has been associated with the Black freedom struggle. In New Growth Jasmine Nichole Cobb traces the history of Afro-textured coiffure, exploring it as a visual material through which to reimagine the sensual experience of Blackness. Through close readings of slave narratives, scrapbooks, travel illustrations, documentary films, and photography as well as collage, craft, and sculpture, from the nineteenth century to the present, Cobb shows how the racial distinctions ascribed to people of African descent become simultaneously visible and tactile. Whether examining Soul Train’s and Ebony’s promotion of the Afro hairstyle alongside styling products or how artists such as Alison Saar and Lorna Simpson underscore the construction of Blackness through the representation of hair, Cobb foregrounds the inseparability of Black hair’s look and feel. Demonstrating that Blackness is palpable through appearance and feeling, Cobb reveals the various ways that people of African descent forge new relationships to the body, public space, and visual culture through the embrace of Black hair.