Wow, so horrifying in its inhumanity and its injustice. Thank you for the eye-opening read. I hope there will be more accountability for those involved and a wider net of people can discover this piece of history and learn from it.
This is shocking, tragic, and horrifying. I did a quick online search, and the only mainstream national/international news outlets that I saw reporting on this 40-year anniversary yesterday were CBS News and The Guardian - really depressing. And it’s incredibly depressing/outrageous that there wasn’t much more accountability for those responsible.
I did not want to “like” this post but know that it needs to be seen. My heart/body/mind hurts reading this post and learning what occurred inside the “city of brotherly love.” I appreciate you, Ava, for bearing witness and shedding light on what happened to this family and their remains.
I remember May 13, 1985. I was 12. My mother turned down the radio and just said, “They dropped a bomb on a house full of Black folks.”
Forty years later, and I still don’t have the language.
But you just gave me some.
Thank you for writing with reverence and rage because both are necessary. The way you laid out the silence, the bureaucratic violence, the bones kept like museum pieces… it gutted me. Again.
This wasn’t a fire. It was a message.
And your telling is a counter-message:
We saw it. We remember. We still mourn out loud.
For every name they tried to erase, thank you for saying them with intention.
Oh I don’t think of it in terms of Ms.Ava needing Ken Burns. I look at it as a collaboration. I look at it as an abundance of talent joining their own styles of creativity in order to be more expansive. I only ask because they are so brilliant in their own way as to produce something unique.
I never knew this chapter of history until today. Thank you. It is chilling to know that with our borders now looking at who leaves our country as much as who enters, that this type of control is always just one decision away.
I'm reading …..
Thank you for this, Ava🥹
“Attention, Move! This is America!”
By Margot Harry
Copyright 1987
I bought it as soon as it came out. I couldn’t put it down. I never forgot the title of this book.
Wonderfully put, said and Remembered "History untold is history repeated". Thanks Democracy Now
Wow, so horrifying in its inhumanity and its injustice. Thank you for the eye-opening read. I hope there will be more accountability for those involved and a wider net of people can discover this piece of history and learn from it.
This is shocking, tragic, and horrifying. I did a quick online search, and the only mainstream national/international news outlets that I saw reporting on this 40-year anniversary yesterday were CBS News and The Guardian - really depressing. And it’s incredibly depressing/outrageous that there wasn’t much more accountability for those responsible.
Thank you for this detailed account of that tragic day.
NGL the bones part really hit me. I’m putting myself in the moment and seeing the firefighters stand down is heart breaking, infuriating…
I did not want to “like” this post but know that it needs to be seen. My heart/body/mind hurts reading this post and learning what occurred inside the “city of brotherly love.” I appreciate you, Ava, for bearing witness and shedding light on what happened to this family and their remains.
Ava,
I remember May 13, 1985. I was 12. My mother turned down the radio and just said, “They dropped a bomb on a house full of Black folks.”
Forty years later, and I still don’t have the language.
But you just gave me some.
Thank you for writing with reverence and rage because both are necessary. The way you laid out the silence, the bureaucratic violence, the bones kept like museum pieces… it gutted me. Again.
This wasn’t a fire. It was a message.
And your telling is a counter-message:
We saw it. We remember. We still mourn out loud.
For every name they tried to erase, thank you for saying them with intention.
Onward, indeed.
I’m from Philadelphia, and I saw that block after the bombing. You never forget that sight.
Ms. Ava, had you ever considered doing a joint project with Ken Burns? I would like to see that story the two of you could bring to light.
Oh I don’t think of it in terms of Ms.Ava needing Ken Burns. I look at it as a collaboration. I look at it as an abundance of talent joining their own styles of creativity in order to be more expansive. I only ask because they are so brilliant in their own way as to produce something unique.
Why does Ava need Ken Burns?
It was heartbreaking to read about. Thank you so much for writing about it and bringing this tragedy to light for others to know.
" NO ONE WENT TO PRISON. NO ONE LOST A JOB"
I did not know. Thank you for sharing.
I did not know. ✨ Thank you.
I never knew this chapter of history until today. Thank you. It is chilling to know that with our borders now looking at who leaves our country as much as who enters, that this type of control is always just one decision away.