Sentenced to life in prison in connection with the May 1973 killing of white police officer Werner Foerster, political activist Assata Shakur escaped to Cuba in 1979, where she was granted political asylum and where she lived until her death on September 26 at the age of 78. A member of the clandestine offshoot of the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army (BLA), she was considered by those in the communist movement to be a “prisoner of war”—a war between US imperialism and Black Americans as an internal US colony, fighting for their own freedom and independence. Shakur was a militant Black revolutionary who rejected the doctrine of nonviolent civil disobedience. In fact, her most noteworthy quote may be, “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
To some, mainly some white Americans and government officials, Shakur was a controversial figure, regarded as a radical and a killer. To others, including many Black Americans, she was a revolutionary, oppressed and wrongly convicted. Shakur’s passing was publicly mourned by artists and musicians like Ava Duvernay, Common, and activist and model Janaya Khan, who praised her political commitments and cited her as an inspiration.
Shakur is probably best known for her 1987 autobiography, Assata: An Autobiography, a raw and powerful account of Shakur’s childhood, her work in the Black Liberation movement, and her years of political persecution, confinement, and eventual escape from prison in the U.S. to sanctuary in Cuba. The book details her early life, radicalization, and her work in the Black Power movement. Moreover, it describes in detail the psychological torment and material deprivation she faced as a political prisoner, she claimed, from sadistic prison guards (including periods of starvation while pregnant).
It was 1964, when Shakur was a 21-year-old student at Manhattan Community College, that she first became radicalized. “I had gone back to school at a time when struggle and activity were growing, when Black consciousness and nationalism were on the upswing,” she wrote in Assata. “You couldn’t catch me without a book in my hand.” She joined the Black student association, called Golden Drums; she started wearing her hair in an afro and renamed herself Assata Olugbala Shakur, dropping her “slave name,” JoAnne Chesimard.
In a letter written from prison titled To My People (1973), Shakur writes, “I am a Black revolutionary, and, as such, i” — Shakur preferred the lowercase “i” as personal pronoun, aiming to remove “the egotistical connotation of the word” — “am a victim of all the wrath, hatred, and slander that amerika is capable of. Like all other Black revolutionaries, amerika is trying to lynch me.”
Throughout the 60s and 70s, the FBI waged covert war against many leftist movements for national liberation through its so-called “counter-insurgency program” (COINTELPRO). Anyone who fought for Black power or civil rights became potential targets for police brutality, assassination, and wrongful imprisonment. This program sought to discredit various target movements by portraying members as ruthless criminals, throwing an abundance of charges at any revolutionaries caught in its path. According to the New York Times, Shakur was indicted 9 times on various violent charges, each case resulting in an acquittal, dismissal, or a hung jury. The 10th indictment is what led to her life sentence.
Shakur was arrested on May 2, 1973, after New Jersey state police pulled her over for having a broken taillight. Police say Shakur and two others came out of the car shooting, which triggered a shootout. Foerster died, as did Zayd Shakur, an associate of Shakur. Both another officer and Shakur herself were injured. Shakur, however, says she never held a gun and that she had raised her arms at the time she was shot. The Times reports that doctors testified, saying her wounds were consistent with her version of the story. After four years behind bars, Assata and Sundiata Acoli, who was also present, were both convicted of murder in 1977 by an all-white jury, despite the lack of physical evidence.
Shakur escaped Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979, with the help of BLA, after serving six years of a life sentence. Historian Teishan A. Latner, in the essay “Assata Shakur Is Welcome Here,” discusses Assata rising to the “status of a folk hero,” as supporters around the country compared her struggle to that of a runaway slave and put signs in their windows that said, “Assata Shakur is welcome here.” Shakur rapidly became a symbol of “revolutionary Black feminist agency, and a living embodiment of successful resistance to anti-Black state repression,” writes Latner. She was generally viewed as “a Black American folk hero… a freedom fighter that escaped the chains of oppression.” Shakur’s popularity at the time was boosted by the fact that she was godmother to famous rapper Tupac Shakur.
After spending years underground, an October 1987 news story from Cuba revealed that Shakur had taken refuge in Havana and been granted political asylum by Fidel Castro. The island was known as a safe haven for leftist dissidents, having granted political asylum to fellow Panthers Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton in 1968 and 1975, respectively. Shakur was given a place to live, a daily allowance, and the chance to reunite with her daughter, Kakuya Shakur. She would go on to describe Cuba as “one of the largest, most resistant and most courageous palenques [communities of escaped slaves] that has ever existed on the face of this planet.”
By the 90s, Shakur spoke Spanish fluently and became a fixture at Cuban political and cultural celebrations. After decades of work with Cuba’s communist party, on the 40th anniversary of the 1973 shootout, in 2013 the FBI placed Shakur on its “Most Wanted” terrorist list as the first woman and “only the second domestic terrorist” to join the list. The FBI announced a reward of $1 million for information that could lead to Shakur’s arrest, which, together with $1 million offered by the State of New Jersey in 2005, brought Shakur’s bounty to $2 million. In response, Shakur disappeared from public life to a life of solitude. She began living underground on the island, moving between undisclosed locations every few months to avoid capture.
The dissonance in Shakur’s legacy is on display after her death. She was long framed as a "terrorist", “cop killer”, and fugitive from the law in media and by officials. Yet, public displays of mourning and calls to honor her legacy abound. Her story is also a reminder of the impact of COINTELPRO, and how it continues to impact activists today through technological surveillance, the criminalization of protest, and the targeting of dissidents.
To many, including those posting in honor of her after her death, Shakur will be remembered as a revolutionary who fought for her freedom and won. That legacy lives on in the “Assata chant” often utilized at protests — “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS.”
