On April 9, 1985, The Philadelphia Daily News published a letter to the editor from Kenneth Boyd, an inmate at SCI Huntingdon.
This letter is full of MOVE rhetoric.
persecution
confrontation
commitment to John Africa
rotten-ass system
nothing can stop the force behind MOVE
Kenneth Boyd is not a name you will hear from a MOVE member or promoter.
Like Carlos Perez, Samuel Sanders, and many others, Kenneth Boyd was recruited into MOVE while incarcerated with MOVE members.
Based on the timing, I suspect it was either Delbert Orr or William Phillips who introduced Boyd to the teachings of John Africa and then literally dictated this "activity" to him.
Boyd never disclosed his affiliation with MOVE in his "concerned inmate" letter to the editor. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, however, already knew.
I cannot state with certainty that Boyd went from close-cropped hair to dreadlocks because of the MOVE Guidelines, but I'd place that bet on Kalshi.
Like the incarcerated MOVE 9 members, Boyd was serving a lengthy sentence for murder.
A month after Boyd mailed his MOVE letter stating that “nothing can stop the force behind MOVE”, Leaphart's goal of overthrowing "the system" resulted in 11 deaths, including five children, and the destruction of 61 homes.
Kenneth Boyd is just one of dozens of people whose stories are absent from the history of MOVE told by current MOVE members and their supporters.
That alone should invite serious scrutiny from journalists and academics alike.
Reminds me of how Manson recruited from both prison and the street. He loved to use his girls as a lure for potential male followers. COG did the same with flirty fishing. Can it be said that MOVE used their women as bait? I'm thinking of several followers who were MOVE married after joining or had relationships with female MOVE members that strengthened their bond.