Who Is She?

Assata Shakur

Assata Olugbala Shakur (birth name JoAnee Deborah Byron, married name Joanne Chesimard) was born on July 14, 1947. Shortly after her birth, her mother and father divorced. Consequently, Shakur lived with her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother and grandfather (Lula and Frank Hill), in Jamaica, New York. At the age of three, she moved with her grandparents to the house where her grandpa was raised in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Shakur's grandparents opened up a business on their beachfront property. Her early childhood was spent working for her grandparents in the restaurant and on the beach. Her grandfather instilled in her a love of reading, and she spent a great deal of her time reading to satisfy her lively imagination.

After returning to live with her mother and stepfather in Queens, Shakur began her political education. She began to confront issues of racism and discrimination she was experiencing (The Washington Post). When she was in her early teens, her mother and stepfather divorced. Soon afterward, Shakur ran away from home and began to search for answers to her questions about the world in which she lived. At the age of seventeen, she dropped out of high school and officially moved out of her mother's house.

In the late 1960's, Shakur became involved with the controversial Black Panther party and her political problems began. Between 1973 and 1977 Shakur was indicted ten times and stood trial for two bank robberies, the kidnapping of a drug dealer, attempted murder of several police officers, and the murder of a New Jersey state trooper (The Washington Post).

In 1973, on the New Jersey Turnpike, Shakur and her two friends- Malik Zayad Shakur and Sundiata Acoli- were stopped by state troopers because of a shattered headlight. When stopped, the trooper had said they were "suspicious" because they had Vermont license plates. The troopers made the three exit the car with their hands up. All of a sudden, shots were fired. Not much is known about who did what -- but in the end, state trooper Werner Foerster and Malik Shakur were killed. Shakur and Sundiata were charged with the death of trooper Foerster. The subsequent trial contained many flaws, including racial injustice by the jury and admitted perjury by the trial's star witness.

With the help of some of her "comrades," Shakur escaped from prison in 1979. In 1987, she published her first book, simply titled Assata Shakur: An Autobiography. Shakur had been missing for eight years until she published the book, at which time she established her whereabouts in Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. The U.S government, under the lead of New Jersey governor Whitman, is actively trying to extradite Shakur on charges of killing state trooper Foerster.

In the book, she tells her side of the story, describing her upbringing, her reasoning for becoming a revolutionary, and the events before, during and after the shooting of trooper Foerster. The book is also complemented by many poems written by Shakur. For Shakur, "she who struggles," the struggle is not over. Though in Cuba, she is still an active voice in the struggle for equal rights in America.

Assata Shakur has been living in Cuba since 1986, after escaping from prison where she was serving a life sentence imposed in a highly disputed trial. Assata was a Black Panther and a Black Liberation Army (BLA) leader in the early '70s, so she was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation. Assata was captured in a shoot-out resulting from resistance to yet another "driving while black" police action in 1973 on the New Jersey State Turnpike.   This time a State Trooper was killed. Zayd Shakur, traveling in the car with Assata, was also killed.

The third person in the car, Sundiata Acoli, is still serving time over 20 years later and has recently been denied parole for another 20 years. According to one of Sundiata' attorney, Joan P. Gibbs, "Assata, at the time of her arrest, was 'wanted' on federal and state charges in New York, all of which juries subsequently found her not guilty of or were dismissed." COINTELPRO...

Assata was the subject of a 1997 documentary, "Eyes of the Rainbow," by AfroCuban film maker Gloria Rolando, who toured the US in October '99 to show it.

The following passage is excerpted from Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur and was originally delivered by Assata Shakur as part of her opening statement while acting as co-counsel in her own defense for charges stemming from  the New Jersey Turnpike incident where she was critically wounded and then tortured at the hands of the State Police Nazis (no hyperbole here, they were WWII Nazis brought to America). Assata Shakur was ultimately convicted in 1977, but had already served four years in prison. Before her daring escape from prison in 1979, Assata Shakur served a total of six years behind bars where she would also give birth to her daughter Kakuya.

"The idea of the Black Liberation Army emerged from conditions in Black communities: conditions of poverty, indecent housing, massive unemployment, poor medical care, and inferior education. The idea came about because Black people are not free or equal in this country. Because ninety percent of the men and women in this country's prisons are Black and Third World. Because ten-year-old children are shot down in our streets. Because dope has saturated our communities, preying on the disillusionment and frustrations of our children. The concept of the BLA arose because of the political, social, and economic oppression of Black people in this country. And where there is oppression, there will be resistance. The BLA is part of that resistance movement. The Black Liberation Army stands for freedom and justice for all people. "

Love is contraband in Hell,
cause love is a acid
that eats away bars.

But you, me, and tomorrow
hold hands and make vows
that struggle will multiply.

The hacksaw has two blades.

The shotgun has two barrels.

We are pregnant with freedom.

We are a conspiracy.

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.

--Assata Shakur, An Autobiography
 

Source:  http://www.afrocubaweb.com/assata.htm
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/assatashakur.html