“We Survived. We Remember. We Speak”: SCARS Podcast Hosts First-Ever Live Interview With MOVE Bombing Survivors

May 2025 marks 40 years since the 1985 MOVE bombing — a deadly and devastating moment in U.S. history that many have tried to forget, but the survivors never could. Now, for the first time since their release from decades of false imprisonment, the survivors themselves are speaking out in a powerful, exclusive live interview on the SCARS Podcast.

Hosted by activist and journalist Attorney Michael Cord AKA Michael Lex , the episode titled “LIVE! 40 YEAR REMEMBRANCE of 1985 MOVE BOMBING. Victims Speak TRUTH After FALSE Imprisonment” brings together the remaining living survivors of the tragic event that unfolded on May 13, 1985 in West Philadelphia.

The Tragedy: What Happened on May 13, 1985?

On that day, the Philadelphia Police Department, under the order of city officials including Mayor Wilson Goode, bombed a residential row house occupied by MOVE, a Black liberation and environmental justice organization founded by John Africa. The house, located at 6221 Osage Avenue, had become the focal point of tension between MOVE members and the city.

Police initially attempted to forcibly remove the group with arrest warrants. When MOVE members refused to leave the home, police engaged in a standoff, firing over 10,000 rounds of ammunition within 90 minutes. When this failed to drive the residents out, police dropped a bomb made of Tovex and C-4 from a helicopter onto the roof of the house.

The explosion ignited a fire that city officials allowed to burn — intentionally — for over an hour. The blaze destroyed 61 homes across the neighborhood and killed 11 MOVE members, including five children.

Only two people survived the bombing from inside the house: Ramona Africa and a 13-year-old boy, Birdie Africa (Michael Moses Ward). Birdie later died in 2013. Ramona was arrested and imprisoned shortly after surviving the bombing.

In the aftermath, no city officials were ever criminally charged for their roles in the incident. The bombing stands as one of the most egregious acts of state violence against Black citizens in American history.

The Survivors Speak — 40 Years Later

In this long-awaited interview, SCARS Podcast becomes the first platform to host the now-freed MOVE survivors who were imprisoned after the bombing under controversial charges. After serving over 40 years collectively, these individuals now share their stories of pain, survival, and unyielding resistance.

The survivors recount not only the trauma of that horrific day but the psychological warfare they endured in prison, and the erasure of their voices from historical narratives. They describe how the bombing was part of a larger pattern of state repression against Black radical movements and offer chilling insight into a justice system built to silence dissent.

“This was more than a bombing — it was genocide. And it was covered up,” one survivor shares. “We lost children, family, community — and still, they tried to paint us as criminals.”

Ramona Africa, who has long been the public face of MOVE and one of its most outspoken defenders, shares how she escaped the flames, only to be charged with riot and conspiracy. She spent seven years in prison.

Her voice, though tested by time and illness, remains unwavering:

“We’ve never stopped telling the truth. But this time, the world is finally ready to listen.”

SCARS Podcast: A Platform for the Silenced

The SCARS Podcast — known for amplifying raw, unfiltered voices of resistance — made history with this live-streamed, unedited interview, aired across YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Hosted by [Host Name], a long-time advocate for social justice and prison reform, the platform provided a space for the survivors to tell their stories uninterrupted — something no mainstream media outlet ever offered.

The interview is more than a remembrance — it’s a call to action. The survivors urge listeners to investigate the truth behind government-sanctioned violence, the prison-industrial complex, and the continued criminalization of Black activism.

“We weren’t criminals. We were organizers, mothers, children, protectors of the Earth. And they tried to erase us with fire,” one guest powerfully states.

A Turning Point for Truth and Justice

As the 40th anniversary of the MOVE bombing passes, this SCARS Podcast episode stands as a living document of resistance — a long-overdue reckoning with a painful American truth.

It’s a reminder that justice delayed is not justice denied — not when voices rise louder with time.