Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947[1] as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard[2]) is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes, of which she would never be charged, and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.[3][4]
In May 1973, Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Shakur and Trooper James Harper were wounded.[5] Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents—charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping—resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals. In 1977, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of Foerster and of seven other felonies related to the shootout.[6]
Shakur was then incarcerated in several prisons, where her treatment drew criticism from some human rights groups. She escaped from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba in political asylum since 1984. Since May 2, 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has classified her as a "domestic terrorist" and offered a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture. Attempts to extradite her have resulted in letters to the Pope and a Congressional resolution. Shakur is the step-aunt of the deceased hip hop icon Tupac Shakur (the sister of his stepfather, Mutulu Shakur). Her life has been portrayed in literature, film, and song.[7]
Shakur was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City on July 16, 1947,[1] where she lived for three years with her parents and grandparents, Lula and Frank Hill.[8] After her parents divorced in 1950, she spent most of her childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina with her grandmother until her family relocated to Queens when she was a teenager.[8][9] For a time, she ran away from home and lived with strangers until she was taken in by her aunt, Evelyn Williams, later her lawyer.[10] She dropped out of high school, but later—with her aunt's help—earned a general equivalency diploma (GED).[10] She attended Borough of Manhattan Community College and then the City College of New York (CCNY) in the mid 1960s, where she was involved in many political activities, protests, and sit-ins.[10]
Shakur was arrested for the first time in 1967 (along with 100 other Manhattan Community College students) on charges of trespassing, after the students chained and locked the entrance to a college building, protesting a curriculum deficient in Black Studies and a lack of black faculty.[11] She married Louis Chesimard, a fellow student-activist at CCNY, in April 1967 and divorced him in December 1970. Shakur devotes only one paragraph of her autobiography to her marriage, attributing its termination to disagreements related to gender roles.[12]
After graduation from CCNY at the age of 23, Shakur became involved in the Black Panther Party (BPP), eventually becoming a leading member of the Harlem branch.[8][13] Prior to joining the BPP, Shakur had met several of its members on a 1970 trip to Oakland, California.[10] One of Shakur's main activities with the Panthers was coordinating a school breakfast program; however, she soon left the Party complaining about the macho behavior of male members of these organizations,[14] but did not go as far as other female Panthers like Regina Jennings who left the organization over sexual harassment.[15] Instead, Shakur's main criticism of the Black Panther Party was its alleged lack of focus on black history:
A documentary film about Shakur, Eyes of the Rainbow, written and directed by Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando, appeared in 1997.[9] The official premier of the film in Havana in 2004 was promoted by Casa de las Américas, the main cultural forum of the Cuban government.[196] The National Conference of Black Lawyers and Mos Def are among the professional organizations and entertainers to support Assata Shakur; The "Hands Off Assata" campaign is organized by Dream Hampton.[7] Hip-hop artist Common recorded a tribute to Shakur, "A Song for Assata", on his album Like Water for Chocolate, after traveling to Havana to meet with Shakur personally.[211] Digable Planets, Paris ("Assata's Song"), Public Enemy, and X-Clan have recorded similar songs about Shakur.[177] Due to her support in the hip-hop culture, Shakur has been alternately termed a "rap music legend"[207] or a "minor cause celebre".[212]
READ MORE ABOUT ASSATA SHAKUR ON WIKIPEDIA OR HER WEBSITE:
www.assatashakur.org
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