MEDIA, Pa. — As part of events taking place during Black History Month at Penn State Brandywine, Michael Africa Sr. and Debbie Africa, onetime members of the black liberation group MOVE, and their son, Michael Africa Jr., will give a talk from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, in the Student Union.
The Africas, along with seven others, were sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison after a 1978 standoff at MOVE’s Powelton Village compound, where a Philadelphia police officer was killed and 18 police officers and firefighters were injured. Michael Africa Jr. was born in prison, raised in the MOVE community and worked for years to see his parents released from prison. The Africas were both paroled in 2018.
There also will be a screening of the documentary film “Let the Fire Burn,” a 2013 documentary film by Jason Osder about a 1985 stand-off between MOVE and the Philadelphia Police Department, from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the Parsons Hall of the Student Union.
A facilitated discussion by local journalist Ulysses Slaughter will follow the film. Slaughter, a graduate of Lincoln University and a Navy veteran, wrote, directed and produced “A Chester Story,” a documentary focused on the history of Chester's African-American communities.
These events are free and open to the campus community.