Vincent Leaphart

Vincent Leaphart (born July 26, 1931 in Philadelphia ; † May 13, 1985 ibid; pseudonym: John Africa ) was the founder of Move (organization) . Africa died along with five other adults and five children when the Philadelphia Police Department carried out a police operation against MOVE headquarters over complaints from neighbors, which were eventually bombed. The explosion caused a huge firestorm. This destroyed 53 houses and damaged eight more.

youth

Africa was born Vincent Leaphart on July 26, 1931 in the Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Leaphart's mother died in a hospital when he was young, for which he blamed the hospital treatment. Leaphart served as a soldier in the Korean War . Hence his early hatred of American class society , which he assumed had a tendency towards racist ideology. Because he was an ethnic African American and believed that Africa is the source of all life, he took the name "John Africa".

Africa later met and worked with Donald Glassey, a social worker from the University of Pennsylvania . Africa was illiterate , so Glassey had to write down Africa's ideas. Glasseys eventually summarized his notes in a document called The Guideline .

MOVE

In a hopeless situation, federal agents of the ATF forced Donald Glassey in the summer of 1977 to associate the organization with bomb-building and arms smuggling. When the ten counts were announced on September 1, 1977, only two actual MOVE members were named: Vincent and Alphonso Africa. It took federal agents three years to find them. Meanwhile, Glassey was referred to a state witness protection program.

On May 13, 1981, federal agents arrested nine MOVE members in Rochester , New York, United States. Vincent and Alfonso were extradited to Philadelphia on bombing and gun charges . She was tried in July 1981. Both took up their own defense and were found not guilty . The Philadelphia Inquirer published a documentary on the 25th anniversary of the so-called "MOVE stalemate" .

Influence on others

Mumia Abu-Jamal followed the tenets of John Africa and is a supporter of the MOVE organization. During Abu-Jamal's 1982 murder charge, Abu-Jamal made repeated submissions that were submitted by Africa and rejected by the presiding judge because Africa was not a lawyer.

See also

• Primitivism

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Frank Trippett: "It Looks Just Like a War Zone" , TIME magazine . May 27, 1985. Retrieved May 20, 2007. 
2. ^ Johanna Saleh Dickson: Move: Sites of Trauma (Pamphlet Architecture 23) . Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.
3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Letter from Mumia: Long Live John Africa! ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. NoDeathPenalty.org, July 4, 1998 
5. ^ The Suspect - One Who Raised His Voice , The Philadelphia Inquirer . December 10, 1981. Archived from the original on March 2, 2004. Retrieved October 18, 2007. 
6. ↑ Trial transcript, §1.49-1.52, available on archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.