Biography
William Phillips Africa is a member of MOVE, the Philadelphia-based Black liberation and back-to-nature group founded by John Africa, and one of the "MOVE 9." Following the August 8, 1978 armed police confrontation at MOVE's Powelton Village house — in which Officer James Ramp was killed — the nine surviving adult members were convicted of third-degree murder in 1980 and each sentenced to 30 to 100 years. He died in prison in 2015, still incarcerated after more than 36 years.
Phil 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. He was convicted along with the rest of the MOVE 9 of third-degree murder of Officer James J. Ramp. He died in Pennsylvania state prison on January 10, 2015 at age 59 — the second of the MOVE 9 to die behind bars, after Merle Africas death in 1998.
