Tupac's aunt is Assata Shakur, the political activist and former Black Liberation Army member who escaped prison and fled to Cuba after she was convicted for the 1977 murder of a New. In May 1973, Shakur was arrested after being wounded in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. Assata Olugbala Shakurpolitical activist, author, fugitive, and step-aunt of the famed, slain hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur was born JoAnne Deborah Bryon on July 16, 1947 in New York City, New York. [70], With gunshot wounds in both arms and a shoulder, Assata Shakur was moved to Middlesex General Hospital under "heavy guard" and was reported to be in "serious condition". "[221] The bounty announcement reportedly caused Shakur to "drop out of sight" after having previously lived relatively openly (including having her home telephone number listed in her local telephone directory). [62], In December 1973, Shakur was tried for a September 29, 1972, $3,700 robbery of the Manufacturer's Hanover Trust Company in the Bronx, along with co-defendant Kamau Sadiki (born Fred Hilton). Farley, Anthony Paul (March 2001). Details about ***RARE*** ASSATA SHAKUR/JOANNE CHESIMARD BLACK PANTHER PARTY FBI WANTED POSTER See original listing . Assata Olugbala Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron; July 16, 1947[a]) is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). "Assata Shakur: Profiled and on the Run". "Squires Jurors Hear Chase Tape". "[44][78] It gives an account of her life beginning with her youth in the South and New York. [92] Bloom had been assigned to defend Sadiki/Hilton over the summer, but White was not disclosed as a government witness until right before the trial. [63] In his opening statement to a jury, Hamlin said that Acoli shot Foerster with a .38 caliber semiautomatic pistol and used Foerster's own gun to "execute him". Sullivan, Joseph F. (February 24, 1977), "Chesimard Attorney Acts to Call Kelley; Wants F.B.I. Assata Shakur, whose real name is Joanne Chesimard, is a Black Panther activist, a member of the left-wing Black Liberation Army, who was convicted of murder in 1977. The film premiered at the San Diego Black Film Festival and starred Assata Shakur herself. She later became a member of the Black Liberation Army and was involved in several Black organizing groups, including the Black Panther Party. Abstract Marighella proposes two essential objectives for the urban guerrilla: physical liquidation of armed forces and police chiefs and assistants, and appropriation of government resources and those belonging to the elite . Lichtenstein, Grace (December 11, 1973). [26] Shakur is alleged to have said that she was glad that she had been shot; afterward, she was no longer afraid to be shot again. Assata Olugbala Shakur is a political activist, author, fugitive and aunt of hip-hop artist, Tupac Shakur. Janson, Donald (February 19, 1977). After graduation, she began using the name Assata Shakur, and briefly joined the Black Panther Party. When a witness identified Shakur and Andrew Jackson from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) photographs, a 13-state alarm was issued three days after the attack. The correspondence sub-series consist of letters written to or from McCreary ranging in date from 1963-1998. . [51][52], According to Cleaver and Katsiaficas, the FBI and local police "initiated a national search-and-destroy mission for suspected BLA members, collaborating in stakeouts that were the products of intensive political repression and counterintelligence campaigns like NEWKILL". And in my own mind, only someone who has been so intimately a victim of this madness as I have can do justice to what I have to say. ", then displayed a revolver and demanded money. [77], Between 1973 and 1977, in New York and New Jersey, Shakur was indicted ten times, resulting in seven different criminal trials. (December 21, 1973). [188][189] In part for his role in the event, Mutulu was named on July 23, 1982, as the 380th addition to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, where he remained for the next four years until his capture in 1986. [208] In the six months preceding the publications of the book, Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt and attorney, made several trips to Cuba and served as a go-between with Hill. [145] On May 6, 1977, Judge Clarkson Fisher, of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, denied Shakur's request for an injunction requiring her transfer from the all-male facility to Clinton Correctional Facility for Women; the Third Circuit affirmed. "F.B.I. At the rally, a statement from Shakur was circulated condemning U.S. prison conditions and calling for an independent "New Afrikan" state. [25] In 1987, Shakur confirmed to a journalist that there was a drug connection in this incident but refused to elaborate. [58] Acoli was captured after a 36-hour manhuntinvolving 400 people, state police helicopters, and bloodhounds. Shakur was convicted May 2, 1973, of killing of a New Jersey state trooper during a shootout that left one of her fellow activists dead. [138], At Shakur's sentencing hearing on April 25, Appleby sentenced her to 26 to 33years in state prison (10 to 12 for the four counts of assault, 12 to 15 for robbery, 2 to 3 for armed robbery, plus 2 to 3 for aiding and abetting the murder of Foerster), to be served consecutively with her mandatory life sentence. [101], Shakur personally cross-examined the witnesses, getting White to admit that he had once been in love with her; the same day, one juror (who had been frequently napping during the trial) was replaced with an alternate. Under cross-examination, Shakur was unable to explain how three magazines of ammunition and 16 live shells had gotten into her shoulder bag; she also admitted to knowing that Zayd Shakur carried a gun at times, and specifically to seeing a gun sticking out of Acoli's pocket while stopping for supper at a Howard Johnson's restaurant shortly before the shooting. [205] The book does not give a detailed account of her involvement in the BLA or the events on the New Jersey Turnpike, except to say that the jury "[c]onvicted a woman with her hands up! According to initial police statements, at this point one or more of the suspects had begun firing with semiautomatic handguns, and Trooper Foerster fired four times before falling mortally wounded. Sullivan, Joseph F. (May 4, 1973). [97] After the selection of twelve jurors (60 were excused), Williams was allowed to retire from the case, with Shakur officially representing herself, assisted by lawyer Florynce Kennedy. 218 Assata Shakur to paint the Black Liberation Army as vicious, brutal, mad dog criminals. [134], One prospective juror was dismissed for reading Target Blue,[153] a book by Robert Daley, a former New York City Deputy Police Commander, which dealt in part with Shakur and had been left in the jury assembly room. Title: Black Liberation Army Papers Creator: Black Liberation Army Inclusive dates: 1963-1998 Extent: 1.5 Linear feet (1 records box and 1 manuscript box) Abstract: . Assata's real crime, FBI spokesman Aaron Ford said, was that from Cuba she continues to "maintain and promote her ideology" and "provides anti-U.S. government speeches espousing the Black Liberation Army message"an ideology and message that the U.S. government has declared "terrorism." The Black Liberation Army (BLA) defined itself as a politico-military organization engaged in armed struggle against the U.S. government. [29][30][31][32] Law enforcement officials in Atlanta, Georgia, said that Shakur and Jackson had lived together in Atlanta for several months in the summer of 1971. [87] White and Rivers testified that Shakur had guarded one of the doors with a .357 magnum pistol and that Sadiki had served as a lookout and drove the getaway truck during the robbery; neither White nor Rivers was cross-examined due to the defense attorney's refusal to participate in the trial. Is she a terrorist? "Prosecution Rests Case on Chesimard Robbery Trial; Defendant Ejected". A photograph of a woman (who was later alleged to be Shakur) wearing thick-rimmed black glasses, with a high hairdo pulled tightly over her head, and pointing a gun, was widely displayed in banks. "Assata Shakur: Case of oppression in U.S". [95] The new jury selection was marked by attempts by Williams to be relieved of her duties, owing to disagreements with Shakur as well as with Hilton's attorney. "[12], On December 21, 1971, Shakur was named by the New York City Police Department as one of four suspects in a hand grenade attack that destroyed a police car and injured two officers in Maspeth, Queens. Sterling, Guy, and Forero, Juan (May 7, 1998), "On the lam, Chesimard is hardly on her own". [58] Assata Shakur testified that she was on her way to Baltimore for a job as a bar waitress. Chesimard, along with former Black Panthers turned Black Liberation Army soldiers, literally waged war against America by ambushing and murdering unsuspecting police officers who they considered to be enemy combatants. [70], Shakur's defense attorneys were William Kunstler (the chief of Shakur's defense staff),[134] Stuart Ball, Robert Bloom, Raymond A. [124] Shortly after deliberation began, the jury asked to see all the photographic exhibits taken from the surveillance footage. Two years later, she escaped. [230], On December 12, 2006, the Chancellor of the City University of New York, Matthew Goldstein, directed City College's president, Gregory H. Williams, to remove the "unauthorized and inappropriate" designation of the "Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center," which was named by students in 1989. Shakur was forcibly subdued and photographed by the FBI on the judge's order, after having refused to cooperate, believing that the FBI would use photo manipulation; a subsequent judge determined that the manners in which the photos were obtained violated Shakur's rights and ruled the new photos inadmissible. New Jersey State Police superintendent Rick Fuentes said "she is now 120pounds of money. In the Matter of Hinds, 449 A.2d 483 (N.J. 1982). Their married life ended within a year; they divorced in December 1970. Numerous musicians have composed and recorded songs about her or dedicated to her: Digable Planets, The Underachievers and X-Clan have also recorded songs about Shakur. [135][152] A sixteenth female juror was removed before the trial formally opened, when it was determined that Sheriff Joseph DeMarino of Middlesex County, while a private detective several years earlier, had worked for a lawyer who represented the juror's husband. that somewhere in your heart you have love for me. [28] In 1987, when asked in Cuba about police allegations that the BLA gained funds by conducting bank robberies and theft, Shakur responded, "There were expropriations, there were bank robberies. After elementary school, Shakur moved back to Queens to live with her mother and stepfather (her mother had remarried); she attended Parsons Junior High School. Browse, borrow, and enjoy titles from the Minuteman Library Network digital collection. [202] Shakur is also known to have worked as an English-language editor for Radio Havana Cuba. [227], A documentary film about Shakur, Eyes of the Rainbow, written and directed by Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando, appeared in 1997. In 1977, she was convicted in the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. Williams often took the girl to museums, theaters, and art galleries.[11]. [158], A key element of Shakur's defense was medical testimony meant to demonstrate that she was shot with her hands up and that she would have been subsequently unable to fire a weapon. [65] The police ordered Assata Shakur and Zayd Shakur to put their hands on their laps and not to move; Harper said that Assata Shakur reached down to the right of her right leg, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the shoulder, after which he retreated to behind his vehicle. The name of Assata Shakur, a woman convicted in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper, has been used by Black Lives Matter to illustrate what the group called Cuba's "solidarity with. & the Militant". [163] To become eligible for parole, Shakur would have had to serve a minimum of 25years, which would have included her four years in custody during the trials. [164] Three other defendants were indicted in relation to the same holdup: Melvin Kearney, who died in 1976 from an eight-floor fall while trying to escape from the Brooklyn House of Detention, Twymon Myers, who was killed by police while a fugitive, and Andrew Jackson, the charges against whom were dismissed when two prosecution witnesses could not identify him in a lineup. Assata was a Black Panther then a Black Liberation Army (BLA) leader in the early '70s, so she was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation. In 1993, she published a second book, Still Black, Still Strong, with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Mumia Abu-Jamal. 473 (D.N.J. ". (May 3, 1973), "2 Die in Shootout; Militant Seized". For the book, see, Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, Howell, Ron (October 11, 1987) "'On the Run With Assata Shakur' -, "Hands Off Assata Shakur: Angela Davis Calls for Radical Activism to Protect Activist Exiled in Cuba. [119] Judge Jacob Mishlerset set a tentative trial date of November 5 that year. [117] Freeman was said to have later escaped unhurt. "[123], In an open letter to Castro, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Representative Maxine Waters of California later explained that many members of the Caucus (including herself) were against Shakur's extradition but had mistakenly voted for the bill, which was placed on the accelerated suspension calendar, generally reserved for non-controversial legislation. She became involved in political activism at Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York. At that time, eight men who came to be known as the San Francisco 8 were accused of killing Sgt. Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes, none of which had sufficient evidence to back them. Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947 as JoAnne Deborah Byron) is an African-American activist.She was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.She was put into prison, but in 1984 she managed to escape.She now lives in Havana, Cuba, as a fugitive.She was the first woman to be put on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping in relation to the shootout and six other incidents. "[242], The Chicago Black activist group Assata's Daughters is named in her honor. The Reemergence of Class in Critical Race Theory Symposium: Essay: Accumulation". "2d Jury Here Begins Weighing Chesimard Bank-Robbery Case". [233], Following controversy, in 1995, Borough of Manhattan Community College renamed a scholarship that had previously been named for Shakur. [16], After graduation from CCNY, Shakur moved to Oakland, California, where she joined the Black Panther Party (BPP). [213] On March 10, 1998[214] New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman asked Attorney General Janet Reno to do whatever it would take to return Shakur from Cuba. "Mrs. Chesimard, in Summation, Terms Holdup Case Contrived". Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography 65 likes Like "Schools in amerika are interested in brainwashing people with amerikanism, giving them a little bit of education, and training them in skills needed to fill the positions the capitalist system requires. The jury asked to See all the photographic exhibits taken from the footage. 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