Wayne State University Law School along with the Detroit Center for Black Studies, Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, Wayne State Political Science Department, and Wayne State Office of Multicultural Student Engagement Juneteenth Planning Committee are co-sponsoring “Burning Down the House (& a Whole Neighborhood): 1985 Philadelphia Police Bombing of the MOVE HQs” on Thursday, April 3, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Wayne Law’s Partrich Auditorium, 471 W. Palmer Ave. in Detroit.
On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police, amid a confrontation with the dissident group MOVE, dropped a bomb on a row house in a Black working-class neighborhood, setting a fire that killed 11 of the house’s 13 occupants (including five children) and burned down 61 residences; the fire’s spread resulted in substantial part from an initial decision to withhold firefighting for some 45 minutes, in a vain attempt to force the house’s inhabitants to flee the building.
The April 3 program will feature a film, lecture, and discussion on this incident. “Let the Fire Burn” is a documentary by director Jason Osder. Dr. Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Professor Emerita of Sociology, New School for Social Research, and author of “Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia Versus MOVE” (The University of Chicago Press, 1994), will give the lecture. The discussion panelists will feature Professor Ronald Brown, Wayne State Political Science Department; Professor Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, Wayne Law; and moderator Professor Brad Roth, Wayne State Political Science Department and Law School.
For additional information about the free program, email Professor Brad Roth at brad.roth@wayne.edu.
On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police, amid a confrontation with the dissident group MOVE, dropped a bomb on a row house in a Black working-class neighborhood, setting a fire that killed 11 of the house’s 13 occupants (including five children) and burned down 61 residences; the fire’s spread resulted in substantial part from an initial decision to withhold firefighting for some 45 minutes, in a vain attempt to force the house’s inhabitants to flee the building.
The April 3 program will feature a film, lecture, and discussion on this incident. “Let the Fire Burn” is a documentary by director Jason Osder. Dr. Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Professor Emerita of Sociology, New School for Social Research, and author of “Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia Versus MOVE” (The University of Chicago Press, 1994), will give the lecture. The discussion panelists will feature Professor Ronald Brown, Wayne State Political Science Department; Professor Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, Wayne Law; and moderator Professor Brad Roth, Wayne State Political Science Department and Law School.
For additional information about the free program, email Professor Brad Roth at brad.roth@wayne.edu.
