Black Nationalism and Independence Movements
The challenges and struggles that separatist groups face are not purely political, but also often puts them in great physical and even mortal danger, as exemplified in the bombing of the predominantly African American separatist group MOVE. The Philadelphia based group, whose members all took the last name Africa, had a long, tumultuous history with the local police as well as the surrounding communities. On 13 May 1985, the police dropped a bomb on the group's home on Ossage Avenue in West Philadelphia. The police then allowed the fire to burn and it spread rapidly to neighboring buildings and blocks destroying sixty-one homes. Eleven MOVE members died in the fire including five children. Only two members survived the inferno.