Her community-oriented activism work with groups like the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, however, are what make her story especially relevant today. It’s been 40 years since Joanne Chesimard shot New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster back in May 1973. (Zayd Malik Shakur was also killed in the melee.). Tupac’s parents Afeni and Billy were active members of … She Escaped From Prison and Fled to Cuba, Where She Remains. According to Essence, Cuba helped Assata with her living expenses and provided her shelter. At about 12:45 a.m. on the morning of May 2, 1973, the fugitive Shakur was being driven to a new hideout in Philadelphia by BPP Information Minister Zayd Malik Shakur (Assata’s brother-in-law) and BLA member Sundiata Acoli, when their car was pulled over by state trooper Jaibes Harper for a tail-light violation on the New Jersey Turnpike. Assata Olugbala Shakur is a political activist, author, fugitive and aunt of hip-hop artist, Tupac Shakur. The ‘FBI’ also increased the reward of capturing and returning her, from $1 million to $2 million.
Assata: Exile since 1979. Chesimard was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Werner Foerster along with accomplice Acoli in 1977, according to The New York Times. Assata Shakur was born Joanne Deborah Byron, in Flushing, Queens, New York City, on July 16, 1947.

One of her defense attorneys, William Kunstler, was known for representing high-profile and controversial clients. Assata Was the Step-Aunt of Tupac Shakur. Joanne Chesimard Added to Most Wanted Terrorists List. After dropping out of high school, she earned a General Equivalency Diploma, attended the Borough of Manhattan Community College for a short time, and eventually graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1970. She then adopted the name “Assata Olugbala Shakur.” “Assata” was derived from the Arabic name “Aisha,” meaning “she who struggles”; “Olugbala” meant “savior” in Yoruba; and ‘Shakur’ meant the “thankful one” in Arabic.

She met her husband, Louis Chesimard, and began participating in the student movement, anti-war activism and the struggle for black liberation. On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Shakur (fsn) Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Author: Revolution Created Date: 4/13/2010 8:19:50 AM Other than the cop-killing charge, Assata previously faced counts of robbery, kidnapping, murder, and assault between 1973 and 1977 in New York. At one point, she spurred a national FBI manhunt; later, after escaping from a New Jersey prison and subsequently being granted asylum in Cuba, she was designated a terrorist by the F.B.I. Fast Facts: Assata Shakur Also Known As: JoAnne Chesimard Born:July 16, 1947, in New York City As a student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and then City College of New York, Byron was exposed to African American history and Black Nationalism, which made a significant impact on her political development. She wrote an open letter, praising Cuba and the then-Cuban president, Fidel Castro, and called herself a 20th-century fugitive slave. Assata Olugbala Shakur is best known for her work in Civil Rights activism. Joanne Chesimard, Zayn Malik Shakur, and Sundiata Acoli were involved in a shootout at the New Jersey Turnpike when their vehicle was stopped for speeding by State Troopers James Harper and Werner Foerster. 5. She had relocated to Cuba 3 decades ago and was given political asylum. They view her, as one fawning San Francisco Chronicle article put it, as “a victim and ally who gives voice to their pain.” Most notably, Shakur is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement’s most revered icon. Foerster was reportedly shot twice in the head with his own gun. The Chicago black activist organization ‘Assata's Daughters,’ founded by Page May in March 2015, was named after Assata. When JoAnne Deborah Byron was born in Jamaica, Queens, in 1947, the world around her was strictly divided along racial and gender lines, with segregation written into the law and woven into the culture of New York. It is the story of Assata Shakur, nee Joanne Chesimard, the sixty year old… With her Aunt Evelyn’s help, Assata Shakur studied for and got her GED, before setting off for the Borough of Manhattan Community College, followed by the more prestigious City College of New York. The book tells the often shocking, yet inspiring, story of Assata's life up to her arrest and eventual escape to Cuba. Joanne Chesimard, who goes by the name Assata Shakur, has been added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list — exactly 40 years after she killed a cop in New Jersey, according to the FBI’s official website. After leaving the ‘BPP’ that year, she joined the underground ‘Black Power’ organization called the ‘Black Liberation Army’ (BLA). They campaigned for an armed struggle against the US Government, for freedom and self-determination of black people in the country. In that latter case, Shakur was found guilty of first-degree murder and seven additional felonies, resulting in a prison sentence of life plus 33 years.

Family Life. Shakur alternates across chapters between recounting her childhood and adolescence and dramatizing the many court cases she faced as an adult on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence.
She worked in the ‘BPP Free Breakfast Program’ for children. In den USA steht sie auf der Liste der meistgesuchten Terroristen des FBI. One resulted in a conviction in 1977, when she was found guilty of murdering Werner and carrying out seven other felonies in relation to the Turnpike shootout. She later joined the ‘City College of New York’ (CCNY), where she took part in several political activities and protests. In response to these initiatives, Shakur in 2013 launched a propaganda offensive claiming that she was innocent of the many charges which had been levied against her, and that her trial had been nothing more than a legal lynching perpetrated by an all-white jury. Soon thereafter, she returned to New York and became a leading member of BPP’s Harlem chapter. Assata, however, asserted that her association with black liberation organizations had led her to become the target of ‘FBI's ‘COINTELPRO.’. 7. She faced her first arrest in 1967, when she, along with 100 other ‘BMCC’ students, were charged with trespassing, for blocking the college building entrance while protesting against the recruitment of fewer number of black faculty members and the lack of black studies programs. Because of her involvement with BPP and BLA, Shakur became a target of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) and thus went into hiding in the early ’70s. Eventually, Assata became a prominent figure of the organization and faced several charges, including those of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, bank robbery, and armed robbery. To this day, the woman who came to embody the intersectional liberation politics of the late Civil Rights era enjoys a sizable base of support in the United States, despite – or perhaps because of – her conviction for murdering a police officer and her dramatic escape from the country years later. Assata Shakur: Top 10 Facts You Need to Know, Copyright © 2020 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Zayn was also killed in the gun fight, leaving Chesimard and Harper wounded. Placing her on the terrorist list allowed law enforcement to increase the reward. Initially, she lived with her retired grandparents, Lula and She was regarded as a hero for her protests against racism, referring herself as a 20th century escaped slave. On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Assata was a step-aunt and godmother to late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, the stepson of her brother Mutulu Shakur. She is also known as the "godmother" or "stepaunt" of the fatally shot American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, known for his activism against inequality. The FBI added Chesimard to the list of the Most Wanted Terrorists, making her the first woman to be on it. Sundiata fled but was arrested later. Assata Shakur was born as JoAnne Deborah Byron, in Queens, New York, on July 16, 1947. She conceived during her trial and gave birth to her only daughter, Kakuya Shakur, on September 11, 1974. Eventually, Shakur’s Aunt Evelyn took her in.