The RBG Assata Shakur Multi-media Guide

THE ASSATA SHAKUR
MULTI-MEDIA GUIDE
http://www.assatashakur.org/
Assata: Exile since 1979: On May, 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Shakur (s/n) JoAnne Chesimard, was
pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata
spent six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances before escaping out of the maximum security wing
of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and moving to Cuba.
Assata: In her own words
My name is Assata ("she who struggles") Shakur ("the thankful one"), and I am a 20th century escaped slave.
Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression,
racism and violence that dominate the US government's policy towards people of color. I am an ex political
prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and
although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I
ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights
movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black
Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the FBI's Cointelpro program. because the
Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it "greatest threat to the
internal security of the country" and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.
Click and play mp3 Introduction by Assata, “We Can Win Our Liberation”

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THE ASSATA SHAKUR MULTI-MEDIA GUIDE
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Early bio
Source: http://socialjustice.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/index.php/Early_bio
Assata Shakur was born Joanne Deborah
Byron Chesimard on July 16, 1947 in New
York City. From an early age, she was raised
to be a socially aware and proud black woman.
Her parents were divorced shortly after she
was born and when she was three years old,
she moved down South to North Carolina with
her grandparents. All of her family tried to
instill in her a sense of personal dignity,
forcing her to never make subservient gestures
to whites and constantly stressing that she was
just as good as whites. While Shakur found her
grandparents defining pride and dignity within
the value system of the white capitalist system
of America. Success meant getting the nice
things that whites had: a car, house, money
etc. In her autobiography, she remarks that her grandmother "had a lot of Booker T. Washington,
pull yourself up by the bootstraps, "talented tenth" ideas." (Shakur 31)
Shakur saw the same when she returned to New York. She lived in Jamaica, Queens and
attended elementary and middle school there. She saw that blacks were completely brainwashed
without being aware of it. They accepted white value systems and sometimes even the white
man's view of themselves. In school, constantly, girls were trying to make themselves fit to the
white beauty standards as much as possible. Furthermore, the education she received in schools
was a further part of her brainwashing as schools taught a history that was just not true. Shakur
ran away from home briefly and lived in the Village of Manhattan, where she experienced what
the real world was like for poor, impoverished blacks. Eventually, she returned to school and

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lived with her aunt Evelyn (who eventually became her lawyer during her trials). During a
summer of her high school years, Assata tried to join the NAACP. She could not, however,
accept the idea that she should just accept people spitting on her. It has led her to believe that
"nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral
sense of the people who were oppressing them." (Shakur 139) The racist system will always use
its oppressive powers to maintain itself. You cannot hope to change the system through the
system.
Shakur attended Manhattan Community College, where had a significant percentage of black and
third world students and where black consciousness and nationalism were omnipresent. The
students there belonged to many organizations, including the Black Muslims, Garveyites, and
Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity (OOAU). Here Assata began to do social
work. During the summer, she worked with grade school students in remedial programs to
improve their reading and math skills. Instead of using conventional textbooks, she often wrote
stories that pertained to the lives of her students. She also allowed them to direct classes to
empower them. In college, Assata was also exposed to socialist groups and learned much about
socialism. However, she experienced a lot of arrogance and dogmatism within these groups.
Arrogance in fact was a major reason why Assata believed that black people had to come
together and organize their own revolutionary party. The white left was too arrogant that no real
friendship nor respect could be gained working with them.
After graduating from college, Shakur went to Oakland, California. There she was exposed to
revolutionaries of other racial groups. Native Americans, Chicanos, and Chinese revolutionaries
were abound and Shakur learned much from these groups. She was so inspired that she decided
to investigate the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Oakland. There it was made clear to her that the
true enemy was not white people, but the capitalistic, imperialistic oppressors. She was
impressed by the BPP in Oakland that she returned to New York and joined the chapter there. It
was here that she met Zayd Shakur, who she would later be accused of murdering.
Upon joining the BPP in New York, however, Shakur began to face some difficulties. She dealt
with many arrogant personalities, such as Robert Bey who expelled her the first day for speaking
back to him. She was reinstated soon afterwards, however. Shakur also felt that the education

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within the BPP was lacking as many issues were discussed without delving into the historical
context or the underlying causes. As a result, many of the BPP members were just robots
repeating the party line. It convinced Shakur that a systematic program for political education for
political education was necessary for a successful movement of Black liberation.
Shakur also began to disagree with the direction of the BPP. Huey P. Newton, the leader of the
BPP, preached intercommunality, which stressed that oppressed communities existed, not
oppressed nations. Shakur saw that the problem with that was that no one had told the oppressed
communities that they were no longer nations. This conflicted with Shakur's tenet that without a
truly internationalist component, nationalism was reactionary. Any community that was
concerned with its liberation had to be concerned with other peoples' freedom also. In addition,
criticism within the organization was not encouraged and Huey Newton began to act like a
dictator within the BPP. He changed his title to Supreme Servant and expel many long-standing
Panthers. The organization had become stagnant. Assata left the Party. Assata realized later that
the degradation of the BPP was actually a product of the FBI's COINTELPRO, who destroyed
the party by using divide-and-conquer tactics, turning members against each other.
Shakur's experience with the BPP helped shape her ideas of how liberation should take place.
Armed struggle was necessary, but not sufficient to bring about a revolution. The hearts of the
masses must also be won. The most important task, according to Shakur, was to help politically
mobilize, educate, and organize the masses of Black people. Revolutionary groups could not
survive without their support. The political and military actions of the liberation groups should
be clearly understood, supported, and publicized in the Black community.
Shakur kept a low profile after she left the BPP but one day she found out that she was wanted
for question in relation to the murder of two police officers. She became a fugitive but still
worked on Liberation and joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA). On May 2, 1973, Shakur
was stopped on the New Jersey State Turnpike, along with two Black Panthers: Zayd Shakur and
Sundiata Acoli . In an ensuing gunfight, Zayd Shakur and one New Jersey state policeman were
killed and Assata Shakur and one New Jersey state policeman were injured. Over the next two-
and-a-half years, Shakur was incarcerated, beaten, and tortured in a series of federal and state

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prisons. The charges ranged from kidnapping to assault and battery to bank robbery. She was
acquitted in all six cases. During her incarceration, she became pregnant and had a daughter.
However, Shakur was found guilty of the murder of both the state trooper and Zayd Shakur, for
her involvement at the gun battle. In 1979 she escaped prison and lived underground until 1986,
when she was granted political asylum in Cuba, where she resides today.
References: http://assata-shakur.biography.ms/
Shakur, Assata. Assata: An Autobiography. Connecticut: Lawrence Hill and Company, 1987.
A Video Auto-Biography/Documentary
OPEN TO VIEW HERE

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The Text Autobiography
(PDF e-Book for download)

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Public Image Files (Click here to open)
Related document:
Who Are New Afrikan Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

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