‘Phil’ Africa, one of the MOVE 9, dies in prison -- Obituaries, She Wrote

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Date Posted: 13:19:22 05/05/21 Wed
Author: Robert Moran, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Subject: ‘Phil’ Africa, one of the MOVE 9, dies in prison

William Phillips Africa, 63, a high-ranking member of MOVE who was serving a 30- to 100-year sentence in the death of a Philadelphia police officer during a 1978 shootout, died in prison Saturday, officials said Wednesday.

Africa died of natural causes at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas, the Luzerne County Coroner's office said. William Phillips added the surname Africa after he joined MOVE and was known in the group as "Phil." He was MOVE's "minister of defense."

Africa was convicted of third-degree murder for the shooting death of Officer James J. Ramp on Aug. 8, 1978. Police were attempting to evict the radical group from its headquarters at 33d and Pearl Streets in Powelton Village when gunfire erupted, and Ramp, 52 and a 23-year veteran of the force, immediately fell, mortally wounded.

The Inquirer reported: "When the shooting broke out, the house and its environs resembled a war scene. Police officers and firefighters scrambled, some crawling, to cover."

MOVE, described then as a radical back-to-nature group that rejected technology and modern values, had been locked in a months-long struggle with the city over sanitary conditions at the house. After the shootout, the city bulldozed the house.

Africa also was found guilty of seven counts of attempted murder resulting from seven people being injured by gunfire that day, including three other police officers.

He was one of nine MOVE members convicted in 1980 after a 19-week trial. It was, at the time, the longest and costliest trial in Pennsylvania history. He first came up for parole in 2008 and was rejected.

While Africa was in prison, his 12-year-old son, Philip Delmar, was killed in the May 1985 police siege on MOVE's compound on Osage Avenue that left 11 members dead from a fire caused by an incendiary bomb dropped by police.

On MOVE's website, the group claimed that Africa died under "suspicious circumstance" and that "conspirators were holding him with murderous intent."

The group said Africa went to the prison infirmary on Jan. 4 and then was transported to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. He was then returned to the prison on Friday and placed in hospice care.

Ramona Africa and another MOVE member visited Phil Africa on Saturday, the group said. "When they reached him, he was incoherent and couldn't talk or move his head to look at them," the group said. Africa died soon afterward.

Ramona Africa, the last surviving member of the 1985 MOVE fire, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

The group said on its website that Africa "worked hard to learn to paint and created countless paintings which he sent to supporters for free or to draw attention to issues, get raffled off for the struggle, and bring people together." He was a father figure who taught inmates "how to box, to think, and how to get stronger," the group said.

He was married to Jeanene Phillips Africa, who is serving a prison sentence of 30 to 100 years for her role in the 1978 shootout.

MOVE claims that members of the original MOVE 9, as the group calls them, were wrongfully convicted because prosecutors could not prove who fired the fatal shot.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/phil-africa-one-of-the-move-9-dies-in-prison/ar-BB1golm0?ocid=BingNewsSearch

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