Analysis of the Poem "Move"

Lucille Clifton's poem "Move" deals specifically with an incident that occurred in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. On that date, Mayor Wilson Goode, Philadelphia's first African American mayor, authorized the use of lethal force against fellow African Americans living at 6221 Osage Avenue. In her introduction to the poem, Clifton says that there had been complaints from neighbors, who were also African American, concerning the "Afrocentric back-to-nature" group that called itself "Move" and had its headquarters at this address (35). The members of this group wore their hair in dreadlocks and they all used their surname of "Africa." Clifton's poem suggests that it was these differences that cost the lives of eleven people, including children, and the loss of sixty-one homes, as authorities bombed the neighborhood rather than tolerate such diversity. In this poem, Clifton emphasizes the word "move," giving it a layered meaning that encompasses it not only as the name of the organization of the people who were bombed, but also as the imperative command to take action and "move" away from harm. Ultimately, however, the word becomes a command that is directed toward the African American major who caused the tragedy. Clifton points an accusing finger, saying that it is he that should "move" and not the people to whom he directed such violence.

The poem begins with Clifton addressing the feelings of Move's neighbors, their hesitation and anxiety over neighbors who were so different from their own ideas concerning societal norms. Clifton writes, "they had begun to whisper/among themselves hesitant/ to be branded neighbor..." (lines 1-3). As these lines indicate, in the first stanza, Clifton expresses the sentiments of their neigh...

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...ove/ away." As this indicates, it is these people who should move and not their victims.

In striking out at the "Move" members, both the African American neighbors and the black mayor were rejecting their own people. The "Move" adherents were different, and their difference included acceptance of a heritage long scorned by black Americans brought up under the influence of an Euro-centric mainstream culture. Their perspective endeavored to embrace long lost connections to heritage that had violently suppressed and taken from them in the past. The African heritage prized by the "Move" could have been theirs, could have been the mayor's, could have been the neighbors, but rather than accept this or even tolerate diversity, they struck out in anger. Diversity is what America is all about and people who do not understand this should follow Clifton's advice and move.