Assata Olugbala Shakur ( ; born JoAnne Deborah Byron, July 16, 1947 – September 25, 2025) was an American political activist, revolutionary, and fugitive who was a member of the Black Panther Party, and later the Black Liberation Army. She was never caught and remained a fugitive for 45 years.

Born in Flushing, Queens, Shakur grew up in New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. After running away from home several times, she was taken in by an aunt, who later acted as one of her lawyers. Shakur became involved in political activism while attending the Borough of Manhattan Community College and the City College of New York. After graduation, she adopted the name Assata Shakur and briefly joined the Black Panther Party before becoming a member of the BLA.

Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was charged with several crimes, leading to a multi-state manhunt. On May 2, 1973, Shakur, along with BLA members Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike. The incident escalated into a shootout with State Troopers Werner Foerster and James Harper. Foerster was killed and Harper was wounded; Zayd Shakur was killed, and both Assata Shakur and Acoli were wounded. At her 1977 trial, Shakur was convicted on multiple charges, including the murder of Foerster and the assault of Harper, and was sentenced to life plus 26 to 33 years in prison. Shakur maintained that she could not have fired the shots that wounded Harper and killed Foerster, as her right arm had been injured by police gunfire early in the confrontation.

While serving her sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey, Shakur escaped in 1979 with the assistance of members of the BLA and the May 19th Communist Organization. She was granted political asylum in Cuba in 1984, where she resided for the remainder of her life despite ongoing efforts by the U.S. government to secure her extradition. In 2013, the FBI added her to its FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list under the name Joanne Deborah Chesimard, making her the first woman to be listed. Shakur died on September 25, 2025, at the age of 78, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry. She lived for three years with her mother, schoolteacher Doris E. Johnson, and retired grandparents, Lula and Frank Hill.

In 1950, Shakur's parents divorced, and she moved with her grandparents to Wilmington, North Carolina. After elementary school, Shakur moved back to Queens to live with her mother and stepfather (her mother had remarried); she attended Parsons Junior High School. Shakur still frequently visited her grandparents in the South. Her family struggled financially and argued frequently; Shakur spent little time at home.

She often ran away, staying with strangers and working for short periods of time, until she was taken in by her mother's sister, Evelyn A. Williams, a civil rights worker who lived in Manhattan. Shakur called her Aunt Evelyn the heroine of her childhood, as she was constantly introducing her to new areas of knowledge. She said her aunt was "very sophisticated and knew all kinds of things. She was right up my alley because i was forever asking all kinds of questions. I wanted to know everything. She would give me a book and say, 'Read this,' and i would eat up that book like it was ice cream." Williams often took her niece to museums, theaters, and art galleries.

Shakur converted to Catholicism as a child and attended the all-girls Cathedral High School for six months before transferring to public high school,

Shakur attended Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and then the City College of New York (CCNY) in the mid-1960s, where she became involved in many political activities, civil rights protests, and sit-ins.

She traced her interest in communism to a 1964 debate about the Vietnam War with several African students attending Columbia University:

In 1967, she was arrested for the first time — with 100 other BMCC students — on charges of trespassing. The students had chained and locked the entrance to a college building to protest the low numbers of black faculty and the lack of a Black Studies program.

Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army

After attending CCNY, Shakur moved to Oakland, California, where she joined the Black Panther Party (BPP), and worked to organize protests and community education programs. After returning to New York City, she led the BPP chapter in Harlem, coordinating the Free Breakfast for Children program, free clinics, and community outreach.

Shakur joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA), an offshoot whose members were inspired by the Vietcong and the Algerian independence fighters of the Battle of Algiers. They mounted a campaign of guerilla activities against the U.S. government, using such tactics as planting bombs, holding up banks, and murdering drug dealers and police.

She began using the name Assata Olugbala Shakur in 1971, rejecting JoAnne Chesimard as a "slave name". Olugbala means "savior" in Yoruba. She identified as an African and felt her old name no longer fit: "It sounded so strange when people called me JoAnne. It really had nothing to do with me. I didn't feel like no JoAnne, or no Negro, or no amerikan. I felt like an African woman."

Allegations and manhunt

On April 6, 1971, Shakur was shot in the stomach during a struggle with a guest at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. According to police, Shakur knocked on the door of a guest's room, asked "Is there a party going on here?", then displayed a revolver and demanded money. In 1987, Shakur confirmed to a journalist that there was a drug connection in this incident but refused to elaborate. Shakur is alleged to have said that she was glad that she had been shot; afterward, she was no longer afraid to be shot again.

Following an August 23, 1971, bank robbery in Queens, Shakur was sought for questioning. A photograph of a woman (who was later alleged to be Shakur) wearing thick-rimmed black glasses, with a high hairdo pulled tightly over her head, and pointing a gun, was widely displayed in banks. The New York Clearing House Association paid for full-page ads displaying material about Shakur. In 1987, when asked in Cuba about police allegations that the BLA gained funds by conducting bank robberies and theft, Shakur responded, "There were expropriations, there were bank robberies." Law enforcement officials in Atlanta, Georgia, said that Shakur and Jackson <!-- Give full name of Jackson; was he a suspect too? -->had lived together in Atlanta for several months in the summer of 1971.

Shakur was wanted for questioning for wounding a police officer on January 26, 1972, who was attempting to serve a traffic summons in Brooklyn. After an $89,000 Brooklyn bank robbery on March 1, 1972, a Daily News headline asked: "Was that JoAnne?" Shakur was identified as wanted for questioning after a September 1, 1972, bank robbery in the Bronx.

In 1972, Shakur became the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the FBI alleged that she led a Black Liberation Army cell that had conducted a "series of cold-blooded murders of New York City police officers". The FBI said these included the "execution style murders" of New York City Police Officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones on May 21, 1971, and NYPD officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie on January 28, 1972. Shakur was alleged to have been directly involved with the Foster and Laurie murders, and involved tangentially with the Piagentini and Jones murders.

Some sources identify Shakur as the de facto head of the BLA after the arrest of co-founder Dhoruba Moore. Robert Daley, Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Police, for example, described Shakur as "the final wanted fugitive, the soul of the gang, the mother hen who kept them together, kept them moving, kept them shooting". Years later, some police officers argued that her importance in the BLA had been exaggerated by the police. One officer said that they had created a "myth" to "demonize" Shakur because she was "educated", "young and pretty". Shakur was reported as one of six suspects in the ambushing of four policemen—two in Jamaica, Queens, and two in Brooklyn—on January 28, 1973.

By June 1973, an apparatus that would become the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) was issuing nearly daily briefings on Shakur's status and the allegations against her.

According to Kathleen Cleaver and George Katsiaficas, the FBI and local police "initiated a national search-and-destroy mission for suspected BLA members, collaborating in stakeouts that were the products of intensive political repression and counterintelligence campaigns like NEWKILL". They "attempted to tie Assata to every suspected action of the BLA involving a woman". The JTTF would later serve as the "coordinating body in the search for Assata and the renewed campaign to smash the BLA", after her escape from prison.

Shakur and others claim that she was targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO as a result of her involvement with the black liberation organizations. Although named after Shakur, CHESROB (like its predecessor, NEWKILL) was not limited to Shakur.

Years later when she was living in Cuba, Shakur was asked about the BLA's alleged involvement in the killings of police officers. She said, "In reality, armed struggle historically has been used by people to liberate themselves... But the question lies in when do people use armed struggle... There were people [in the BLA] who absolutely took the position that it was just time to resist, and if black people didn't start to fight back against police brutality and didn't start to wage armed resistance, we would be annihilated." Assata Shakur, along with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick by State Trooper James Harper—backed up by Trooper Werner Foerster in a second patrol vehicle—for driving with a broken tail light. Recordings of Trooper Harper calling the dispatcher were played at the trials of both Acoli and Assata. Acoli was driving the two-door vehicle, Assata was seated in the right front seat, and Zayd was in the right rear seat. Harper further testified that Foerster reached into the vehicle, pulled out and held up a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition magazine, and said, "Jim, look what I found,"

The police ordered Assata and Zayd to put their hands on their laps and not to move. Harper said that Assata reached down to the right of her right leg, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the shoulder, after which he retreated behind his vehicle. Questioned by prosecutor C. Judson Hamlin, Harper said he saw Foerster shot just as Assata was hit by bullets from Harper's gun. According to the testimony of State Police investigators, two jammed semi-automatic pistols were discovered near Foerster's body. Zayd's body was found in a nearby gully along the road. Her defense team alleged that her medical care during this period was "substandard".

She was transferred from Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick to Roosevelt Hospital in Edison after her lawyers obtained a court order from Judge John Bachman. She was transferred a few weeks later to Middlesex County Workhouse.

During an interview, Assata discussed her treatment by the police and medical staff at Middlesex General Hospital. She said the police beat and choked her and were "doing everything that they could possibly do as soon as the doctors or nurses would go outside".

Criminal charges and dispositions

Between 1973 and 1977, in New York and New Jersey, Assata Shakur was indicted ten times, resulting in seven different criminal trials. She was charged with two bank robberies, the kidnapping of a Brooklyn heroin dealer, the attempted murder of two Queens police officers stemming from a January 23, 1973, failed ambush, and eight other felonies related to the Turnpike shootout. Of these trials, three resulted in acquittals, one in a hung jury, one in a change of venue, one in a mistrial due to pregnancy, and one in a conviction. Three indictments were dismissed without trial. In protest, the lawyers stayed mute, and Shakur and Sadiki conducted their own defense. Seven other BLA members were indicted by District Attorney Eugene Gold in connection with the series of holdups and shootings on the same day, who—according to Gold—represented the "top echelon" of the BLA as determined by a year-long investigation.

The prosecution's case rested largely on the testimony of two men who had pleaded guilty to participating in the holdup. The prosecution called four witnesses: Avon White and John Rivers, both of whom had already pled guilty to the robbery, and the manager and teller of the bank. White and Rivers, although having pled guilty, had not yet been sentenced for the robbery and were promised that the charges would be dropped in exchange for their testimony.

During the trial, the defendants were escorted to a "holding pen" outside the courtroom several times after shouting complaints and epithets at Judge Gagliardi. While in the holding pen, they listened to the proceedings over loudspeakers. Both defendants were repeatedly cited for contempt of court and eventually barred from the courtroom, where the trial continued in their absence.

Sadiki's lawyer, Robert Bloom, attempted to have the trial dismissed and then postponed due to new "revelations" regarding the credibility of White, a former co-defendant, by then working for the prosecution. Bloom had been assigned to defend Sadiki/Hilton over the summer, but White was not disclosed as a government witness until right before the trial. Judge Gagliardi instructed both the prosecution and the defense not to bring up Shakur or Sadiki's connections to the BLA, saying they were "not relevant". This trial resulted in a hung jury and then a mistrial, when the jury reported to Gagliardi that they were hopelessly deadlocked for the fourth time. The new jury selection was marked by attempts by Williams to be relieved of her duties, owing to disagreements with Shakur as well as with Hilton's attorney. Judge Arnold Bauman denied the application, but directed another lawyer, Howard Jacobs, to defend Shakur while Williams remained the attorney of record.

After the selection of twelve jurors (60 were excused), Williams was allowed to retire from the case, with Shakur officially representing herself, assisted by lawyer Florynce Kennedy. In the retrial, White testified that the six alleged robbers had saved their hair clippings to create disguises, and identified a partially obscured head and shoulder in a photo taken from a surveillance camera as Shakur's. Kennedy objected to this identification on the grounds that the prosecutor, assistant United States attorney Peter Truebner, had offered to stipulate that Shakur was not depicted in any of the photographs.

Shakur personally cross-examined the witnesses, getting White to admit that he had once been in love with her; the same day, one juror (who had been frequently napping during the trial) was replaced with an alternate. During the retrial, the defendants repeatedly left or were thrown out of the courtroom. Both defendants were acquitted in the retrial; six jurors interviewed after the trial stated that they did not believe the two key prosecution witnesses. Shakur was immediately returned to Morristown, New Jersey, under a heavy guard following the trial.

Turnpike shootout mistrial

The Turnpike shootout proceedings continued with Judge John E. Bachman in Middlesex County. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Leon Gerofsky ordered a change of venue in 1973 from Middlesex to Morris County, New Jersey, saying "it was almost impossible to obtain a jury here comprising people willing to accept the responsibility of impartiality so that defendants will be protected from transitory passion and prejudice." Morris County had a far smaller black population than Middlesex County. On this basis, Shakur unsuccessfully attempted to move the trial to federal court.

Before jury selection was complete, it was discovered that Shakur was pregnant. Due to the possibility of miscarriage, the prosecution successfully requested a mistrial for Shakur; Acoli's trial continued.

Attempted murder dismissal

Shakur and four others (including Fred Hilton, Avon White, and Andrew Jackson) were indicted in the State Supreme Court in the Bronx on December 31, 1973, on charges of attempting to shoot and kill two policemen—Michael O'Reilly and Roy Polliana, who were wounded but had since returned to duty—in an ambush in St. Albans, Queens, on January 28, 1973. On March 5, 1974, two new defendants (Jeannette Jefferson and Robert Hayes) were named in an indictment involving the same charges. On April 26, while Shakur was pregnant, New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne signed an extradition order to move Shakur to New Jersey to face two counts of attempted murder, attempted assault, and possession of dangerous weapons related to the alleged ambush; however, Shakur declined to waive her right to an extradition hearing, and asked for a full hearing before Middlesex County Court Judge John E. Bachman.

Shakur was extradited to New York City on May 6, arraigned on May 11 (pleading not guilty), and remanded to jail by Justice Albert S. McGrover of the State Supreme Court, pending a pretrial hearing on July 2. In November 1974, New York State Supreme Court Justice Peter Farrell dismissed the attempted murder indictment because of insufficient evidence, declaring "The court can only note with disapproval that virtually a year has passed before counsel made an application for the most basic relief permitted by law, namely an attack on the sufficiency of the evidence submitted by the grand jury."

Kidnapping trial

Shakur was indicted on May 30, 1974, on the charge of having robbed a Brooklyn bar and kidnapping bartender James E. Freeman for ransom. Shakur and co-defendant Ronald Myers were acquitted on December 19, 1975, after seven hours of jury deliberation, ending a three-month trial in front of Judge William Thompson.

Queens bank robbery trial

In July 1973, after being indicted by a grand jury, Shakur pleaded not guilty in Federal Court in Brooklyn to an indictment related to a $7,700 robbery of the Bankers Trust Company bank in Queens on August 31, 1971. Judge Jacob Mishlerset set a tentative trial date of November 5 that year. The trial was delayed until 1976, Shortly after deliberation began, the jury asked to see all the photographic exhibits taken from the surveillance footage.

Shakur was acquitted after seven hours of jury deliberation on January 16, 1976, and was immediately remanded back to New Jersey for the Turnpike trial. The actual transfer took place on January 29. She was the only one of the six suspects in the robbery to be brought to trial. An en banc panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed.

The nine-week trial was widely publicized and was even reported on by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS). Kunstler had previously been successful in subpoenaing Kelley and Church for the trials of American Indian Movement (AIM) members charged with murdering FBI agents.

Under cross-examination, Shakur was unable to explain how three magazines of ammunition and 16 live shells had gotten into her shoulder bag; she also admitted to knowing that Zayd Shakur carried a gun at times, and specifically to seeing a gun sticking out of Acoli's pocket while stopping for supper at a Howard Johnson's restaurant shortly before the shooting. Stanley Cohen (who died of unknown causes early on in the Turnpike trial), Lennox Hinds, Florynce Kennedy, Louis Myers, Laurence Stern, and Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt. Of these attorneys, Kunstler, Ball, Cohen, Myers, Stern and Williams appeared in court for the turnpike trial. Kunstler became involved in Shakur's trials in 1975, when contacted by Williams, and commuted from New York City to New Brunswick every day with Stern.

Her attorneys, in particular Lennox Hinds, were often held in contempt of court, which the National Conference of Black Lawyers cited as an example of systemic bias in the judicial system. The New Jersey Legal Ethics Committee also investigated complaints against Hinds for comparing Shakur's murder trial to "legalized lynching" undertaken by a "kangaroo court". Hinds' disciplinary proceeding reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Middlesex County Ethics Committee v. Garden State Bar Ass'n (1982). According to Kunstler's autobiography, the sizable contingent of New Jersey State Troopers guarding the courthouse were under strict orders from their commander, Col. Clinton Pagano, to completely shun Shakur's defense attorneys. but later ruled that Kunstler could represent Shakur. Until obtaining a court order, Kunstler was forced to strip naked and undergo a body search before each visit with Shakur—during which Shakur was shackled to a bed by both ankles. Her lawyers also claimed that their offices were secretly recorded. Acoli did not testify or make any pre-trial statements, nor did he testify in his own trial or give a statement to the police. The driver traveling north on the turnpike testified that he had seen a State Trooper struggling with a Black man between a white vehicle and a State Trooper car, whose revolving lights illuminated the area. All of the 15 jurors—ten women and five men—were white, and most were under thirty years old. Five jurors had personal ties to State Troopers (one girlfriend, two nephews, and two friends). A sixteenth female juror was removed before the trial formally opened, when it was determined that Sheriff Joseph DeMarino of Middlesex County, while a private detective several years earlier, had worked for a lawyer who represented the juror's husband. a book by Robert Daley, a former New York City Deputy Police Commander, which dealt in part with Shakur and had been left in the jury assembly room. Before the jury entered the courtroom, Judge Appleby ordered Shakur's lawyers to remove a copy of Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley from a position on the defense counsel table easily visible to jurors. Judge Appleby rejected Kunstler's claim that the juror had violated the order. McGovern later sued Kunstler for defamation; Kunstler eventually publicly apologized to McGovern and paid him a small settlement.

Medical evidence

thumb|Shakur's broken [[clavicle was a key element of her defense, and the implications of her injury for the differing accounts of the shootout were points of contention.]]

A key element of Shakur's defense was medical testimony meant to demonstrate that she was shot with her hands up and that she would have been subsequently unable to fire a weapon. A neurologist testified that the median nerve in Shakur's right arm was severed by the second bullet, making her unable to pull a trigger.

Davidson based his testimony on an August 4, 1976, examination of Shakur and on X-rays taken immediately after the shootout at Middlesex General Hospital.

Judge Appleby eventually cut off funds for any further expert defense testimony.

Other evidence

According to Angela Davis, neutron activation analysis that was administered after the shootout showed no gunpowder residue on Shakur's fingers and forensic analysis performed at the Trenton, New Jersey, crime lab and the FBI crime labs in Washington, D.C., did not find her fingerprints on any weapon at the scene. According to tape recordings and police reports made several hours after the shoot-out, when Harper returned on foot to the administration building 200&nbsp;yards (183&nbsp;m) away, he did not report Foerster's presence at the scene; no one at headquarters knew of Foerster's involvement in the shoot-out until his body was discovered beside his patrol car, more than an hour later.

Conviction and sentencing

On March 24, the jurors listened for 45 minutes to a rereading of testimony of the State Police chemist regarding the blood found at the scene, on the LeMans, and Shakur's clothing.

Appleby reiterated that the jury must consider separately the four assault charges (atrocious assault and battery, assault on a police officer acting in the line of duty, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault with intent to kill), each of which carried a total maximum penalty of 33 years in prison. Appleby finally sentenced Shakur to 30 days in the Middlesex County Workhouse for contempt of court, concurrent with the other sentences, for refusing to rise when he entered the courtroom. The case was delayed in being brought to trial as a result of an agreement between the governors of New York and New Jersey as to the priority of the charges against Shakur. Shakur was accused of attempting to rob a Michigan man staying at the hotel of $250 of cash and personal property.

Imprisonment

thumb|Shakur was kept in [[solitary confinement on Rikers Island for 21&nbsp;months.]]

After the Turnpike shootings, Shakur was briefly held at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville, Burlington County, New Jersey, and later moved to Rikers Island Correctional Institution for Women in New York City for 21 months. Shakur's only daughter, Kakuya Shakur, was conceived with Kamau Sadiki during Shakur's trial. where Shakur stayed for a few days before being returned to Rikers Island.

In her autobiography, Shakur claims that she was beaten and restrained by several large female officers after refusing a medical exam from a prison doctor shortly after giving birth. She was also transferred from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women to a special area staffed by women guards at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility, where she was the only female inmate, for "security reasons".

When Kunstler first took on Shakur's case (before meeting her), he described her basement cell as "adequate", which nearly resulted in his dismissal as her attorney. On May 6, 1977, Judge Clarkson Fisher, of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, denied Shakur's request for an injunction requiring her transfer from the all-male facility to Clinton Correctional Facility for Women; the Third Circuit affirmed.

On April 8, 1978, Shakur was transferred to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia, where she met Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón At Alderson, Shakur was housed in the Maximum Security Unit, which also contained several members of the Aryan Sisterhood as well as Sandra Good and Lynette Fromme, followers of Charles Manson.

On February 20, 1979, after the Maximum Security Unit at Alderson was closed, Hinds argues that "in the history of New Jersey, no woman pretrial detainee or prisoner has ever been treated as she was, continuously confined in a men's prison, under twenty-four-hour surveillance of her most intimate functions, without intellectual sustenance, adequate medical attention, and exercise, and without the company of other women for all the years she was in custody".

Shakur was identified as a political prisoner as early as October 8, 1973, by Angela Davis, and in an April 3, 1977, The New York Times advertisement purchased by the Easter Coalition for Human Rights. An international panel of seven jurists were invited by Hinds to tour a number of U.S. prisons, and concluded in a report filed with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that the conditions of her solitary confinement were "totally unbefitting any prisoner". Amnesty International, however, did not regard Shakur as a former political prisoner.

Escape

In early 1979, "the Family", a group of BLA members, began to plan Shakur's escape from prison. They financed this by stealing $105,000 from a Bamberger's store in Paramus, New Jersey. On November 2, 1979, Shakur escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey when three members of the Black Liberation Army visiting her drew concealed .45-caliber pistols and a stick of dynamite, seized two correction officers as hostages, commandeered a van and (with the assistance of members of the May 19th Communist Organization) made their escape. No one was injured during the prison break, including the officers held as hostages who were left in a parking lot. In part for his role in the event, Mutulu was named on July 23, 1982, as the 380th addition to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, where he remained for the next four years until his capture in 1986. State correction officials disclosed in November 1979 that they had not run identity checks on Shakur's visitors and that the three men and one woman who assisted in her escape had presented false identification to enter the prison's visitor room, before which they were not searched.

thumb|A photo of fugitive Assata Shakur, distributed by the [[FBI in 1982.]]

At the time of the escape, Kunstler had just started to prepare her appeal. In New York, three days after her escape, more than 5,000 demonstrators organized by the National Black Human Rights Coalition carried signs with the same slogan. At the rally, a statement from Shakur was circulated condemning U.S. prison conditions and calling for an independent "New Afrikan" state.

For years after Shakur's escape, the movements, activities and phone calls of her friends and relatives—including her daughter walking to school in upper Manhattan—were monitored by investigators in an attempt to ascertain her whereabouts. In July 1980, FBI director William H. Webster said that the search for Shakur had been frustrated by residents' refusal to cooperate, and a New York Times editorial opined that the department's commitment to "enforce the law with vigor—but also with sensitivity for civil rights and civil liberties" had been "clouded" by an "apparently crude sweep" through a Harlem building in search of Shakur.

In particular, one pre-dawn April 20, 1980, raid on 92 Morningside Avenue, during which FBI agents armed with shotguns and machine guns broke down doors and searched through the building for several hours while preventing residents from leaving, was seen by residents as having "racist overtones". In October 1980, New Jersey and New York City Police denied published reports that they had declined to raid a Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn building where Shakur was suspected to be hiding for fear of provoking a racial incident. Following her escape, Shakur was also charged with unlawful flight to avoid imprisonment.

Political asylum in Cuba

In 1984, Shakur was in Cuba having traveled to the country from Mexico according to former FBI Assistant Director John Miller. That year she was granted political asylum there. In 1985, her daughter, Kakuya, who had been raised by Shakur's mother in New York, came to live with her. In 1987 her presence in Cuba became widely known when she agreed to be interviewed by Newsday. Shakur is also known to have worked as an English-language editor for Radio Havana Cuba. and critical race theory. The book does not give a detailed account of her involvement in the BLA or the events on the New Jersey Turnpike, except to say that the jury "[c]onvicted a woman with her hands up!"

The book was published by Lawrence Hill & Company in the United States and Canada but the copyright is held by Zed Books Ltd. of London due to "Son of Sam" laws, which restrict who can receive profits from a book. In the six months preceding the publications of the book, Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt and attorney, made several trips to Cuba and served as a go-between with Hill. Her autobiography was republished in Britain in 2014 and a dramatized version performed on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

In 1993 she published a second book, Still Black, Still Strong, with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In 2005 SUNY Press released The New Abolitionists: (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, edited and with an added introduction by Joy James, in which Shakur's "Women in Prison: How We Are" is featured.

Extradition attempts

In 1997 Carl Williams, the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to raise the issue of Shakur's extradition during his talks with President Fidel Castro. During the pope's visit to Cuba in 1998, Shakur agreed to an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza. Shakur later published an extensive criticism of the NBC segment, which inter-spliced footage of Trooper Foerster's grieving widow with an FBI photo connected to a bank robbery of which Shakur had been acquitted.

In March 1998, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to do whatever it would take to extradite Shakur from Cuba. Later in 1998, U.S. media widely reported claims that the United States State Department had offered to lift the Cuban embargo in exchange for the return of 90 U.S. fugitives, including Shakur.

In September 1998, the United States Congress passed a non-binding resolution, asking Cuba for the return of Shakur as well as 90 fugitives believed by Congress to be residing in Cuba; House Concurrent Resolution 254 passed 371–0 in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate. The Resolution followed the lobbying efforts of Governor Whitman and New Jersey Representative Bob Franks. Before the passage of the Resolution, Franks stated: "This escaped murderer now lives a comfortable life in Cuba and has launched a public relations campaign in which she attempts to portray herself as an innocent victim rather than a cold-blooded murderer." In the letter, Waters explained her opposition, calling COINTELPRO "illegal, clandestine political persecution." the largest reward placed on an individual in the history of New Jersey. New Jersey State Police superintendent Rick Fuentes said "she is now 120 pounds of money." The bounty announcement reportedly caused Shakur to "drop out of sight" after having previously lived relatively openly, including having her home telephone number listed in her local telephone directory.

The New Jersey State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation had an agent officially assigned to her case while she was an escapee. Calls for Shakur's extradition increased following Fidel Castro's 2006–2008 transfer of presidential duties.

In 2013, the FBI announced it had added Shakur to its list of 'Most Wanted Terrorists', the first time that a woman was so designated. The reward for her capture and return was doubled to $2 million.

In June 2017, President Donald Trump gave a speech "cancelling" the Cuban thaw policies of his predecessor Barack Obama. A condition of making a new deal between the United States and Cuba is the release of political prisoners and the return of fugitives from justice. Trump specifically called for the return of "the cop-killer Joanne Chesimard".

Personal life and death

In April 1967, she married Louis Chesimard, a fellow student-activist at CCNY, in a Catholic wedding ceremony. Their married life ended within a year; they divorced in December 1970 and Chesimard was granted an annulment. In her 320-page memoir, Shakur gave one paragraph to her marriage, saying that it ended over their differing views of gender roles.

Shakur's daughter, Kakuya Shakur, was born during her trial for murder. Kakuya's father is Kamau Sadiki, another codefendant in the case.

Shakur was widely described as rapper Tupac Shakur's godmother.

According to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Assata Shakur died in Havana on September 25, 2025, following health problems. She was 78.

Cultural influence and legacy

The Guardian describes Shakur as "an icon of Black liberation", noting that "her life and memoir inspired racial justice movements for decades." Shakur's writings have influenced the 2020s Black Lives Matter movement. In their obituaries, The New York Times and Rolling Stone called Shakur a folk hero. BBC News described her as a hero to many US left wing activists. ABC News noted that she "continued to be a top priority for law enforcement officials in the United States over more than four decades". Shakur also served as a symbol for fraught Cuba–United States relations. Her reputation exceeded that of all other East Coast Panthers. In 2008, a Bucknell University professor included Shakur in a course on "African-American heroes"—along with figures such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, John Henry, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis. Her autobiography is studied together with those of Angela Davis and Elaine Brown, the only women activists of the Black Power movement who have published book-length autobiographies. Rutgers University professor H. Bruce Franklin, who excerpts Shakur's book in a class on "Crime and Punishment in American Literature," describes her as a "revolutionary fighter against imperialism."

In 2015, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation co-founder Alicia Garza wrote: "When I use Assata's powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata's significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why it's important in our context." Upon Assata's death, Black Lives Matter Grassroots Inc. vowed to fight in her memory, and Black Lives Matter organizer Malkia Cyril expressed sorrow, stating, "The world in this era needs the kind of courage and radical love she practiced if we are going to survive it". The Chicago-based Black activist group Assata's Daughters is named in her honor. In April 2017, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's foundation donated $25,000 to the group. 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. Assata aka Joanne Chesimard is a 2008 biographical film directed by Fred Baker. The film premiered at the San Diego Black Film Festival and starred Assata Shakur herself.

Numerous musicians have composed and recorded songs about her or dedicated to her: Common recorded "A Song for Assata" on his album Like Water for Chocolate (2000) after traveling to Havana to meet with Shakur personally. Nas listed her name in the booklet of his album Untitled, among important black figures who inspired the album. Digable Planets, The Underachievers and X-Clan have also recorded songs about Shakur. and a "minor cause celebre". Actress Teyana Taylor said that her character in the 2025 movie, One Battle After Another, was based on Shakur.

On December 12, 2006, the Chancellor of the City University of New York, Matthew Goldstein, directed City College's president, Gregory H. Williams, to remove the "unauthorized and inappropriate" designation of the "Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center", which was named by students in 1989. A student group won the right to use the lounge after a campus shutdown over proposed tuition increases. CUNY was sued by student and alumni groups after removing the plaque. As of April 7, 2010, the presiding judge has ruled that the issues of students' free speech and administrators' immunity from suit "deserve a trial".

Following controversy, in 1995, Borough of Manhattan Community College renamed a scholarship that had previously been named for Shakur. Black NJ State Trooper Anthony Reed, who has left the force, sued the police force because, among other things, persons had hung posters of Shakur, altered to include Reed's badge number, in a Newark barracks. He felt it was intended to insult him, as she had killed an officer, and that the act was "racist in nature".

In 2015, New Jersey's Kean University dropped hip-hop artist Common as a commencement speaker because of police complaints. Members of the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey expressed their anger over Common's "A Song For Assata". In July 2017, the Women's March official Twitter feed celebrated Shakur's birthday, leading to criticism from some media outlets.

Upon her death, the Chicago Teachers' Union released a post on Twitter honoring her, which received immediate criticism for commemorating a convicted murderer whose crime left a police officer dead. Among others, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy labeled the CTU's post as "shameful and depraved," though others such as former Ohio state senator Nina Turner and the Democratic Socialists of America released similar statements commemorating Shakur's life and celebrating her actions.

Notes

References

Sources

  • Burrough, Bryan. .
  • Christol, Helene. Gysin, Fritz, and Mulvey, Christopher (eds.). (2001). "Militant Autobiography: The Case of Assata Shakur," in Black Liberation in the Americas. LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster. .
  • Churchill, Ward and James Vander Wall. (2002). The Cointelpro papers: documents from the FBI's secret wars against dissent in the United States. South End Press. .
  • Cleaver, Kathleen, and Katsiaficas, George N. (2001). Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Panthers and Their Legacy. Routledge. .
  • James, Joy (2003). Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion. Rowman & Littlefield. .
  • Jones, Charles Earl (1998). The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered). Black Classic Press. .
  • Kunstler, William Moses. (1994). My Life as a Radical Lawyer. Secaucus, New Jersey: Birch Lane Press. .
  • Perkins, Margo V. (2000). Autobiography as Activism: Three Black Women of the Sixties. Univ. Press of Mississippi. .
  • Rodriguez, Dylan (2006). Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime. University of Minnesota Press. .
  • Scheffler, Judith A. (2002). Wall Tappings: An International Anthology of Women's Prison Writings, 200 to the Present. Feminist Press. .
  • Shakur, Assata (1987). Assata: An Autobiography. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. . New edition released in November 1999.
  • Tomlinson, Gerald (1994). Murdered in Jersey. Rutgers University Press. .
  • Williams, Evelyn (1993). Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended the Black Liberation Army. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Lawrence Hill Books. .

Further reading

  • Belton, Brian A. (2007). Assata Shakur: A Voice from the Palenques in Black Routes: Legacy of African Diaspora. Hansib Publications Ltd. .
  • "New Most Wanted Terrorist Joanne Chesimard; First Woman Added to List," May 2, 2013, Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • Assata Shakur Speaks! – website in support of Shakur
  • "The Story of Joanne Chesimard," May 2003 editorial, NJLawman.com
  • The Eyes of the Rainbow documentary
  • Immoral Bounty for Assata by Michael Ratner, Covert Action Quarterly, October 27, 1998
  • Most Wanted Terrorists: Joanne Deborah Chesimard – Federal Bureau of Investigation