The Gazette

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Entertainment

Assata Shakur, an author, activist, former member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA), is living up to her name, which means "she who struggles-the thankful one."

Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947 in Queens, N.Y., lived with her parents and grandparents until she was 3. When her mother and father divorced around 1950, she moved to Wilmington, N.C with her grandparents. Things in North Carolina were very different than what Byron was used to, as there were few Black people. She received different treatment from her peers and teachers because of the color of her skin. Also, in Wilmington there were discriminatory laws, including the ban of Blacks from public beaches.

Despite the racism, her grandparents became small business owners of a beach-front restaurant that also served as a vacationing spot. They taught their smart, proud and feisty grandchild dignity and high self-esteem. They also taught her how to stand up for herself in a country where Blacks were not welcomed with open arms.

At the age of 23, Byron joined the BPP and changed her name to Assata Shakur. As a member if the BPP, Shakur fought for the equal treatment of Blacks in prison, participated in the Black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. By 1969, the FBI had a file for all BPP members, especially Shakur, who they deemed the "revolutionary mother hen," and made their top priority.

The FBI attempted to incarcerate Shakur in more than five cases, but she was acquitted or dismissed in all of them. In 1972, she was wanted by the FBI on federal and state charges for armed bank robbery and by the New York police in connection with the killing of two policemen. It was this warrant, which resulted in a shoot-out in 1973 on the New Jersey Turnpike after police pulled over a car carrying Shakur and two other companions.

A New Jersey state trooper was killed and one of the men she was riding with was shot dead. Her other friend escaped and was later captured, and Shakur was shot from behind in her arm and her shoulder while she had her hands up in the surrendering position. She never fired a shot.

Shakur served 21 months at Rikers Island during her trial. In September 1974, while in prison, she gave birth to her only daughter, Kakuya Shakur, in a local hospital. A few days after giving birth, she was returned back to Rikers Island.

In 1978, regardless of the fact that she never fired a shot, she was found guilty by a White jury and sentenced to life in prison. Shakur was sent to the New Jersey State Reception and Correction Center, but because the FBI considered her a greater risk than the facility could handle, they moved her to New Jersey's Corrections Institute for Women. On Nov. 2, 1979, Shakur escaped from this prison with the help of three members of the BLA, who were posed as visitors. The following day she made the FBI's most wanted list.

Continued...

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