assata shakur biography

Early Life

Birth name: JoAnne Deborah Byron
Date of birth: July 16, 1947
Place of birth: Jamaica, Queens, New York City
Family background:
- After her parents’ divorce when she was young (1950), she lived for periods with her mother, grandparents in North Carolina, and in New York.
- She had a difficult childhood, including financial hardship and instability.
- Her aunt, Evelyn A. Williams, played a significant role in her life — later also serving as her attorney.
Education:
- She attended junior high school (Parsons) in Queens.
- She dropped out of high school. Later she got a GED through her aunt’s assistance.
- She also attended Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York (CCNY) in the late 1960s.

Name change: In about 1971, she adopted the name Assata Olugbala Shakur, rejecting her birth name as a “slave name.”
- She said Assata means “she who struggles,” Olugbala roughly “love for the people,” and Shakur “the thankful.”
She was involved with the Black Panther Party briefly, helping lead community programs in Harlem (free breakfast, clinics, etc.)
Later, she joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a more militant group.

Shootout / Arrest (1973): On May 2, 1973, Assata Shakur was in a car stopped by New Jersey State Troopers (for a taillight issue). The encounter turned violent. Trooper Werner Foerster and a Black Liberation Army member (Zayd Malik Shakur) were killed; others were wounded. Assata was arrested and wounded.
Charges & Trial:
- Between 1971-1973, she faced multiple charges (robbery, kidnapping, assault, etc.). Some cases were dismissed or ended in hung juries.
- In 1977, she was convicted of the murder of Trooper Foerster (among other felonies). She maintained that she was wrongly convicted and that medical evidence (e.g., a paralyzing arm injury) supported her claims that she couldn’t have fired a weapon.
Escape / Exile:
- In 1979, she escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey with help from members of the BLA and possibly other radical groups.
- In 1984 she was granted political asylum in Cuba and lived there for the rest of her life.

She was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013, becoming the first woman so designated by the U.S. government.
Her memoir, Assata: An Autobiography, published in 1987, is widely cited and has influenced many in discussions around racial justice, prison systems, activism, and U.S. law enforcement.

Date of death: September 25, 2025 (in Havana, Cuba)
She was 78 years old at the time.
The Cuban foreign ministry cited “health problems and advanced age” as the cause.

Supporters argue that her trial was flawed: claims of racial bias (all-white jury), disputed evidence, her version of events (that she was shot while surrendering) vs. the prosecution’s version.
Opponents argue that the convictions and evidence are valid and that she was rightly convicted. Legal opinions differ.
Her status in the U.S. and Cuba: the U.S. has sought her extradition for decades, while Cuba has refused, citing her political asylum status.