Biography
Merle Austin Africa is documented as one of the MOVE 9, placing her activism within MOVE’s broader Philadelphia history of radical communal organizing and direct confrontation with city authority. In accounts of MOVE, the MOVE 9 convictions became a central, long-running focus of organizing by supporters, with imprisoned members—including Merle Africa—frequently cited in campaigns against perceived political repression and punitive policing.
She was arrested on Aug. 8, 1978 after the Powelton Village confrontation and was convicted of third-degree murder alongside the other MOVE 9, receiving a decades-long sentence. She died while incarcerated in 1998. Merle Africa was a member of the MOVE organization arrested with eight other MOVE members in the August 8, 1978 Philadelphia police raid on the MOVE compound at 33rd and Powelton. She was convicted along with the rest of the MOVE 9 of third-degree murder of Officer James J. Ramp. She died in Pennsylvania state prison in March 1998 at age 47 — the first of the MOVE 9 to die behind bars.
