Mumia as Journalist: “The Voice of the Voiceless”

His work was guided by the, “principle that we are oppressed black human beings first.”

He was elected president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black Journalists at age 26 in November 1980. He was named by Philadelphia Magazine as one of its “people to watch” in 1981. He became known as the “Voice of the Voiceless”, and among those voiceless was the MOVE organization.

I met move while covering them in Philadelphia and I became exposed to them as opposed to reading about them and found out that what I read about them had no relationship to the kind of people they were and what they were about. That every published report was tinged with prejudice and hatred.

MOVE members have been active and above ground in Philadelphia since 1973. They have been through every jail in Philadelphia. They have been beaten in every police district all over Philadelphia for standing up for their belief to defend life.