Reports: MOVE bombing victims' remains sat in Penn Museum for years
Every time I teach the MOVE bombing, students are shocked. And when I teach the aftermath involving an anthropologist who hoarded some of the remains and used them as teaching tools, they are even more shocked. And I teach in Pennsylvania. Even some students from Philly are unaware of this history
Jacqueline Antonovich171And I actually think you can't teach the bombing now without also teaching about the abuses of the remains (and the activism of the people who tried to bring it to light). It's part of it.
Dr. "No extra credit" Professor Matt L47I was in high school when it happened. To this day I remember the MOVE bombing but I did not hear about the crime against the victims' remains until quite recently. It is horrifying that the city of Philadelphia could bomb and burn down one of its own neighborhoods to inflict punishment on an
Victor Ray37Lots of things radicalized me. But learning about the MOVE bombing was definitely an accelerant.
David Rotenstein, Curator, Shrouded in Secrecy Archives32Yep. And, it's not a recent thing. Here's an article I wrote way back in 1992 about Black people's remains from Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery living in Georgia State University's anthropology lab.
Ellen Muehlberger24....and a university proudly published a video of the anthropologist holding those remains up for a class to gaze at
Jennifer Weeks16Plenty of kids around Boston don't know anything about the city's racist history. At my daughters' progressive HS in the burbs, there was a certain smugness about Northeast superiority. Once when my youngest said we were going to New Orleans for spring break, a teacher joked, "My condolences."
marquisedusud.bsky.social9I learned about it in the early 1990s from an art installation at a museum - it was profoundly shocking to me as a young adult, and it changed how I see the world. Learning about eugenics as an adult was similar. Now I teach about both in my classes.
Penny Puttanesca says Abolish ICE/COB/DHS🧿 🍉🤌🏻6I am 50, from philly and remember this vividly. Most people younger than me,though...
Eileen Clancy 🧿6I am so glad to hear you are teaching this. Lucky students. It was such a horror. Compounded by the way it was accepted by civil society. Practically an "oh well."
amy en–dash 🇺🇦5I was 13 and living not far from Philly, so it was huge news. Looking back, it had an enormous effect on my politics.
Randolph Scully4I had heard about it when it happened (15 year old living in DC area), but I didn't really understand until after I arrived in Philly for grad school in the early 1990s. The legacy was everywhere, shaping everything in that city.
Mike Freeman4Went to college in the Philly orbit ‘87-91 and only heard it mentioned once/twice.
Smörhuvud (he/surprise me)3Wildly irrelevant: When I worked in Ethiopia in the 90s, I hung out with an Ethiopian ACT UP activist (whom George HW Bush once called a chickenshit for disrupting a speech) who had gone to Haverford and taught me the history of the MOVE bombing.
ｆｕｃｋｉｎｇ ｂｉｔｃｈ2It's odd for such a compelling and colorful story to get missed in history classes or the popular imagination. A city dropping a bomb on itself was maybe too unbelievable, I think still a unique distinction. Dismissed as outlier instead of studied as critical edge case.
