Assata Shakur dies at 78 in Cuba

Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, New York, was the sister of fellow Black liberation movement icon Mutulu Shakur, who died in 2023 at 72, and the godmother and step-aunt of late legendary rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, whose mother, Afeni, was Mutulu’s wife.

Assata represents one of the most iconic names associated with the Black Panthers and the fight to truly liberate Black people from white overseers.

For America, she’s a far more controversial figure, and to many, she’s a notorious criminal who broke out of prison and fled the country after murdering a police officer, an act that kept her on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and New Jersey’s Most Wanted List until her dying day. According to EBSCO Knowledge Advantage, she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

On May 2, 1973, Shakur and two other BLA members were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike by State Trooper Werner Foerster and another highway officer. A confrontation occurred between the officers and Shakur’s group, which resulted in a shootout that left Forrester and another individual dead. In 2019, FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Gregory Ehrie characterized the shooting as “a heinous execution of a law enforcement officer, cut and dry.”

“This is without dispute,” Ehrrie continued.

Oh, but this certainly has been disputed.

In fact, supporters of Shakur have and continue to argue that the trial was flawed, citing a lack of physical evidence and eyewitness inconsistencies, and the history of efforts by law enforcement, including the FBI, to undermine and outright sabotage the civil rights movement and Black power movements.

At any rate, Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 and ultimately sought asylum in Cuba, where she lived out her life.

Originally Published on NewsOne.com