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Police Bombed MOVE Organizers’ Home in 1985 (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

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Police Bombed MOVE Organizers’ Home in 1985 (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

Uploaded: 2026-05-05

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An investigation into the 1985 police bombing of the Black revolutionary group MOVE’s headquarters in a middle-class neighborhood in West Philadelphia. (Aired 1987) This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Donate to FRONTLINE now: https://bit.ly/47DFzCb And support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate On May 13, 1985, a years-long feud between the Black revolutionary group MOVE and Philadelphia officials reached a bloody culmination that saw police dropping a military-grade bomb in a Black residential neighborhood and allowing the resulting fire to rage. Eleven people were killed at MOVE’s headquarters, five of them children, and 61 neighboring homes were destroyed. How it happened, and who was responsible, is the focus of the 1987 FRONTLINE documentary, “The Bombing of West Philly.” “We have to remember that this nation fought wars to prevent bombs from being dropped on its people in this country,” Novella Williams, a community activist, said in the documentary. “And we sit by and allow a little city government to borrow a helicopter and concoct a bomb with high military explosives, C-4, and drop it on our people? What kind of people are we?” The documentary is a powerful and nuanced exploration of that question, tracing back to the 1970s, when MOVE arose against the backdrop of stark police brutality against Black Philadelphians. The 1985 bombing and the resulting fire destroyed not just the MOVE compound, but also the homes of frustrated neighbors who had complained about MOVE’s tactics to city officials and begged for their help. The Philadelphia City Council issued a formal apology for the MOVE bombing in 2020, acknowledging “the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity” of the event. No city officials were ever criminally charged. “The Bombing of West Philly” was written, produced and directed by Martin Smith. The correspondent was Leon Dash. The associate producer was Sue Williams. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning. #Documentary #Philadelphia #MOVEbombing Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSfrontline Sign up for our newsletter: https://frontline.org/newsletter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/frontlinepbs.bsky.social FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and The Fialkow Family Foundation, as part of the Plum Bush Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Prologue 00:45 - Reactions to the 1985 Police Bombing of MOVE’s HQ in West Philadelphia 04:12 - Origins of the Black Revolutionary Group MOVE 10:24 - History of Confrontations Between MOVE & the City of Philadelphia 31:14 - How Philadelphia Police Bombed MOVE’s Compound, Destroying Nearby Homes 42:59 - Survivors of the MOVE Bombing Recount Their Experiences 50:26 - Residents Impacted by the MOVE Bombing Express Their Frustrations 53:47 - Credits

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Source: PBS Frontline

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description: An investigation into the 1985 police bombing of the Black revolutionary group MOVE’s headquarters in a middle-class neighborhood in West Philadelphia. (Aired 1987) This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Donate to FRONTLINE now: https://bit.ly/47DFzCb And support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate On May 13, 1985, a years-long feud between the Black revolutionary group MOVE and Philadelphia officials reached a bloody culmination that saw police dropping a military-grade bomb in a Black residential neighborhood and allowing the resulting fire to rage. Eleven people were killed at MOVE’s headquarters, five of them children, and 61 neighboring homes were destroyed. How it happened, and who was responsible, is the focus of the 1987 FRONTLINE documentary, “The Bombing of West Philly.” “We have to remember that this nation fought wars to prevent bombs from being dropped on its people in this country,” Novella Williams, a community activist, said in the documentary. “And we sit by and allow a little city government to borrow a helicopter and concoct a bomb with high military explosives, C-4, and drop it on our people? What kind of people are we?” The documentary is a powerful and nuanced exploration of that question, tracing back to the 1970s, when MOVE arose against the backdrop of stark police brutality against Black Philadelphians. The 1985 bombing and the resulting fire destroyed not just the MOVE compound, but also the homes of frustrated neighbors who had complained about MOVE’s tactics to city officials and begged for their help. The Philadelphia City Council issued a formal apology for the MOVE bombing in 2020, acknowledging “the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity” of the event. No city officials were ever criminally charged. “The Bombing of West Philly” was written, produced and directed by Martin Smith. The correspondent was Leon Dash. The associate producer was Sue Williams. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning. #Documentary #Philadelphia #MOVEbombing Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSfrontline Sign up for our newsletter: https://frontline.org/newsletter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/frontlinepbs.bsky.social FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and The Fialkow Family Foundation, as part of the Plum Bush Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Prologue 00:45 - Reactions to the 1985 Police Bombing of MOVE’s HQ in West Philadelphia 04:12 - Origins of the Black Revolutionary Group MOVE 10:24 - History of Confrontations Between MOVE & the City of Philadelphia 31:14 - How Philadelphia Police Bombed MOVE’s Compound, Destroying Nearby Homes 42:59 - Survivors of the MOVE Bombing Recount Their Experiences 50:26 - Residents Impacted by the MOVE Bombing Express Their Frustrations 53:47 - Credits
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Police Bombed MOVE Organizers’ Home in 1985 (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

Raw Attributes