Assata Shakur, a prominent figure in U.S. Black liberation movements and a fugitive from U.S. law enforcement, died Sept. 25 in Havana, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday. She was 78.
In a statement, Cuba said Shakur died of “health conditions and advanced age.” Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed the death via a Facebook post. “At approximately 1:15 p.m. on September 25th, my mother, Assata Shakur, took her last earthly breath,” she wrote.
Born Joanne Deborah Byron in July 1947 in Queens, New York, Shakur later adopted the name Joanne Chesimard. She was active in the Black Panther Party before joining the more militant Black Liberation Army.
On May 2, 1973, state troopers pulled over a vehicle carrying Shakur and other figures for a broken taillight. A gunfight followed. Trooper Werner Foerster and one of the vehicle’s occupants, Zayd Malik Shakur, died; another trooper was wounded. Shakur was wounded and taken into custody.
In 1977, she was convicted of first-degree murder for Foerster’s death and related charges and received a life sentence. She maintained her innocence, arguing she had her hands raised at the time she was shot, a claim backed by medical testimony about her injuries.
In November 1979, Shakur escaped from New Jersey’s Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in a prison break organized by BLA members posing as visitors. She fled the United States and was later granted political asylum in Cuba, where she lived openly from 1984 onward, despite repeated U.S. efforts to secure her extradition.
In 2013, she became the first woman placed on the FBI’s list of “Most Wanted Terrorists,” with a reward offered for her capture.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan said in a joint statement that “justice was never served.” They opposed any effort to return Shakur’s remains to the U.S.
Supporters and activists honored her as a symbol of resistance to racial injustice and state violence. The Black Lives Matter Grassroots organization pledged to “fight in her honor and memory.”
Her life—polarizing to many—has spurred debate over crime and punishment, political dissent, and racial justice.
