By D Watkins.
Mike Africa, Jr., who was born in prison, appeared on “Salon Talks” to dis­cuss MOVE and free­ing his parents

Eight-year-old me could­n’t imag­ine not see­ing my dad’s smil­ing face on Christmas morn­ing, or draw­ing my mom a car­toon-filled card cov­ered in thank yous for Mother’s Day, or the thou­sands of oth­er mem­o­ries small kids get to share with their par­ents. These types of mem­o­ries make up the foun­da­tion of our tra­di­tions and are the things that we pass down to our kids. Mike Africa Jr., who was born in prison, was robbed of the chance of cre­at­ing those in-per­son mem­o­ries with his par­ents. The Philadelphia police depart­ment forced him to fig­ure out life on his own.

Africa Jr.‘s jour­ney is bril­liant­ly relat­ed in the new HBO doc­u­men­tary film, “40 Years a Prisoner,” direct­ed by Tommy Oliver and avail­able now on HBO Max. Featuring an all-star ensem­ble of pro­duc­ers includ­ing The Roots, Common, and John Legend, “40 Years A Prisoner” is a com­pelling film about the hor­rors of America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The sto­ry begins in 1978 when Philadelphia police raid­ed MOVE, a back to nature orga­ni­za­tion based on love, among oth­er peace­ful prin­ci­ples. Africa’s par­ents, two MOVE mem­bers, were arrest­ed dur­ing that raid on trumped-up charges and con­vict­ed before he was born. In the film, Oliver doc­u­ments Africa Jr.‘s life pur­suit of free­ing his par­ents, along with oth­er MOVE mem­bers, and a decades-long bat­tle with the Philadelphia police depart­ment. I recent­ly got a chance to talk with Africa Jr. and Oliver about the film on an episode of “Salon Talks.”
Read the sto­ry here: https://​www​.salon​.com/​2​0​2​0​/​1​2​/​1​0​/​4​0​-​y​e​a​r​s​-​a​-​p​r​i​s​o​n​e​r​-​m​i​k​e​-​a​f​r​i​c​a​-​j​r​-​t​o​m​m​y​-​o​l​i​v​e​r​-​s​a​l​o​n​-​t​a​l​ks/