August 27, 2021
Four years ago today, The Philadelphia Inquirer published an exposé about MOVE.
The story didn’t come from neighbors, cops, or politicians. It came from children born into MOVE between 1976 and 2000 — now adults — along with young adults who joined the group. They went on the record with corroborating allegations of abuse, control, and violence. Not from “the system,” but from MOVE itself.
They repeated what they had shared first on my podcast; that MOVE was dangerous, had controlled every part of their lives, and was NOT a Black liberation group.
“The only thing I would call them is a cult,” said Maria Hardy, 24, who spent nearly a decade inside MOVE’s Kingsessing Avenue headquarters.
“I was raised in a cult that denied me basic human rights,” said Salina Robbins, 27.
The story by Jason Nark ran online first and included the word ‘cult’ - the word every cult tries to avoid and swat down immediately.
Then, on Sunday, it was front-page, above the fold, multi-page, and in color.
For a period of four days, the MOVE myth cracked. The victims held the microphone.
And in doing so, they directly challenged MOVE’s current press-chasing spokespeople and leaders: Jeanette Patton (Pam Africa), Michael Davis (Mike Africa Jr.), and his recently paroled parents Debbie Sims and Mike Davis.
…MOVE, including Pam Africa and Mike Africa Jr., did not return requests for interviews…
Why? Because they were scrambling to do damage control—and failing.
For the first time in decades, MOVE avoided the press. They knew they couldn’t deny the victims — not when those victims were their own children, siblings, and nieces.
And then the paper moved on.
Since that explosive front-page story, the Inquirer has published more than 40 pieces about MOVE. And in them, MOVE is once again a “Black liberation group,” a “back-to-nature group,” a family, or a movement led by John Africa — a name that was never real. The same headlines, the same May 13 photos, the same pre-whistleblower framing as if Jason Nark’s story never existed.
The survivors who risked everything to tell the truth have been written out. Their words erased. Their credibility undercut.
Why? Because the truth didn’t pay. The lie did.
Stories from more than a half-dozen credible victims — Black and white, from within MOVE — didn’t deliver clicks. Stories based on MOVE’s own narrative did. So the Inquirer went back to the version that sells: MOVE as the victim, everyone else as the liar.
In 2023, The Inquirer launched a 7-figure ad campaign to court millennials — billboards, bus shelters, digital ads. Its CEO said awareness of the paper isn’t the problem, subscriptions are. Editorial decisions now lean toward content that performs in feeds and funnels — content that can convert views into paying customers.
This isn’t unique to the Inquirer — traditional newsrooms worldwide are increasingly driven by algorithmic incentives, where emotionally charged or identity-signaling headlines drastically outperform nuance in engagement.
It’s one reason so many reporters and writers, myself included, have migrated here to Substack — to be supported directly by readers, not by algorithms.
“The business model that funds quality journalism is eroding. Yet the need for quality journalism has never been greater.”
— A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of The New York Times, testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, June 2019.
Attaching PDF of the online story (end of post) where you will notice the subheadline described MOVE as a “Black liberation group” — the very thing the survivors were debunking.
Thank you for taking the time to read my reporting and writing here on Substack.
I can't believe it's been four years already. The MOVE defectors deserve way more attention and support than they got. For me, the silence from the activist scene was truly revealing. IIRC, only Philly Food Not Bombs made a statement after the story broke. The rest of the "movement"- always ready to cancel anybody who strays from their strict dogma- didn't say shit. Too invested in the idea of MOVE, too scared they'd be bullied by MOVE, not enough guts to break ranks.