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Assata Shakur | |
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| Born | JoAnne Deborah Byron 16 July 1947 Queens, New York City, United States|U.S. |
| Died | 25 September 2025 (aged 78) Havana, Cuba |
| Known for | Black Panther Party activist |
Assata Olugbala Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron; 16 July 1947 – 25 September 2025), briefly known as Joanne Chesimard, was an African American political activist, revolutionary, and member of the Black Panther Party. In the early 1970s, she was targetted by COINTELPRO and charged with a litany of violent crimes. This culminated in 1973 when she was caught in a shootout which resulted in the death of state trooper Werner Foerster. In 1977, she was convicted of Foerster's murder and sentenced to life in prison. Shakur escaped in 1979, living in exile in Cuba until her death in 2025.[1]
Early Life[edit | edit source]
Assata Shakur was born JoAnne Deborah Byron on 16 July 1947. She had one sister, Beverly, who was five years younger than her. Shortly after she was born her parents divorced and Assata went to live with her mother and aunt and her grandparents in Jamaica, New York. When she was 3 she moved with her grandparents to Wilmington, North Carolina.[2]
Political Activism[edit | edit source]
Shakur protested against the U.S. invasion of Vietnam while in college. After graduating, she moved to Oakland, California and joined the Black Panther Party. She later returned to New York City to lead the Black Panther branch in Harlem. In 1971, the police pulled her over and shot her in the stomach, beginning a shootout that killed Zayd Shakur, another Black Panther, and one police officer. Shakur and another revolutionary, Sundiata Acoli, were sent to prison, but Shakur escaped to Cuba.[1]
See Also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rachel Domond (2021-08-23). "Assata Shakur: The making of a revolutionary woman" Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ↑ Assata Shakur (1988). Assata.