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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.

Activism & Political Life

• 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.

Legal Issues, Conviction & Escape

• 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.

FBI, Most Wanted Status, and Legacy

• 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.

Death

• 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.

Controversies & Disputed Points

• 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.