The nutcase Philly group was “MOVE” (rather like Obambi’s “CHANGE” theme as well as “MoveOn”). They had a shootout with Philly police in 1978 and then the really huge disaster when the police dropped a bomb on a house of MOVE freaks because they had been wrecking the neighborhood and would not come out:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3468303095.html
ACORN has been around since the 70s I believe..... I know I had heard of them by around 1981 b/c one of the nutty leftists in my college class was going to work for them after graduation. Knowing him slightly, I assumed that they were pretty radical and off-the-wall loons.
thanks.