Assata Shakur, a Black American liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba, has died at the age of 78, according to her family and Cuban officials.
Shakur died on Thursday “due to health conditions and advanced age”, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday.
Confirming her death in a Facebook post, her daughter, Kakuya Shakur,wrote, “Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I am feeling at this time.”
Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, had been living in Cuba for over 30 years, after escaping from prison where she was serving a life sentence for allegedly killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973. The step-aunt and godmother of the late Tupac became the first woman to ever make the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list.
While in her 20s, Shakur joined the Black Panthers in the late 1960s but later left after not agreeing with the direction of the group. She subsequently joined another black militant organization, the Black Liberation Army (BLA).
On the evening of May 2, 1973, Shakur and two BLA colleagues were stopped by two state troopers for a traffic infraction in New Jersey. In the course of the confrontation, Shakur’s friend Zayd Shakur and State Trooper Werner Foerster were killed.
Shakur was accused of Foerster’s murder despite consistently denying the accusation. In 1977, she was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in a trial that was described as coming from a “kangaroo court.”
Two years later, she escaped with the help of BLA members who posed as visitors to the prison.
Shakur was granted asylum by Fidel Castro in 1984.
There was a $2 million federal and state reward for her arrest. Politicians, including the likes of Donald Trump, have over the years demanded her extradition from Cuba, raising concerns about whether she was still a threat to U.S. security.
People, however, raised doubts about any supposed threats she could pose.
Shakur, who has been mentioned in songs like “A Song for Assata” and Public Enemy’s “Rebel Without A Pause,” made news in April 2018 when she was given a check for thousands of dollars by a North Carolina county court due to a land deal.
