From 1976: There WAS a baby and now he’s gone

This story was originally published on April 9, 1976

The police version and the organization MOVE’s version of what happened at 4 o’clock in the morning, March 28, in front of MOVE’s headquarters on N. 33rd St. near Powelton Ave. are as far apart as the distance between Philadelphia, Pa., and Philadelphia, Miss.

What began as a sidewalk celebration for seven MOVE members just released from prison ended up with six MOVE members being arrested on riot and assault charges.

MOVE members accused the police of brutally beating them without provocation.

Police records state that MOVE member assaulted a policeman first, necessitating assistance.

But the worst discrepancy between the two versions involves the alleged death of a tiny three-week-old baby, ironically named Life.

The baby was killed, charges MOVE, when a policeman reached past his mother, who was holding him to get at her husband, Phil.

“I was thrown to the ground,” says a typed statement by Janine.

“I was stepped on several times by the cops.”

Although the typed statement does not specifically describe how Life was killed, MOVE claims he died when his mother was flung to the ground by a policeman and the baby’s head was crushed during the fall.

Police authorities strongly doubted the baby’s existence after they were unable to document its birth from hospital records.

But four witnesses confirmed to this reported that they had seen Janine Africa (all MOVE members take the surname Africa, after the group’s founder, John Africa, with the baby. Two of the witnesses also said she had been pregnant at least a couple of months ago.

Hospital records prove nothing.

All of the MOVE babies are born at MOVE headquarters.

During the last year, four babies were born there: Lifa (10 mos.), Israel (8 mos.), John (8 mos.) and Janine’s Life (three weeks).

“OUR RELIGION teaches belief in life,” says Jerry Africa. “The child’s legitimacy is established at birth. We don’t need to synthetically represent the baby’s birth or death by registration.”

Cecil Wallace Harris lives directly across the street from the MOVE headquarters. The 67-year-old retired chef spends much of his time sitting at the window, watching life unfold in the streets.

He only has one leg, but, he chuckles softly, “the old man makes it somehow.

“I saw that baby when it was first born. I knew when Janine was pregnant. I didn’t see the police beat her, I saw the police beating the rest of them like dogs. It terrible. They shouldn’t have treated them like that,” said with a sigh of sorrow as if its mere release could biot out the memory.

Young Kevin Martin remembered when the baby was born because “they had a big celebration. They came to the house to tell my mother.

There are also unconfirmed reports that at least two high elected officials, the wife of one of the officials and a minister have viewed a dead baby on the premises.

The unresolved question is whether or not it’s Janine’s baby.

MOVE members would make no comment on the reports. “We keep hearing people say these things,” said Delbert Africa.

Versions of the same event may differ, even collide. But nobody can deny that Phil and Janine Africa had a baby and that baby is no longer alive. If you could see Janine, her dark-circled eyes in sockets of despair, her body stiff with grief, you would know that something precious has gone out of her life.

This story was originally published on April 9, 1976