Philadelphia, June 18 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, MOVE member Debbie Africa has been granted parole and was released from prison after a decades-long campaign to win her freedom. 

Debbie Africa was imprisoned for nearly 40 years, after being arrested during a massive police raid on the Philadelphia MOVE house in 1978, during which one police officer was killed.

In 1985, police bombed the headquarters of MOVE, causing a fire that killed eleven MOVE members, including five children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood.

At the time of her arrest in 1978, she was 22 years old and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her son, Mike Jr.  After her release over the weekend, Debbie Africa reunited with her son, Mike, for the first time outside prison walls in their entire lives.