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Assata Shakur is an African-American, social justice activist, artist, poet, mother and grandmother. She has lived in Cuba since the early 1980’s.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, she was a victim of both racial profiling and political targeting. After being spotted on the New Jersey turnpike on May 2, 1973, because she is black, it was discovered that she and her two companions were known members of the Black Panther Party. Like many members of the civil rights movement, Assata had been watched, her phones taped, her families monitored, her organizations infiltrated, and a widespread disinformation campaign waged against her. Thus on that day in May, Assata was a marked woman. And after police stopped them, a series of shootings occurred. When the smoke cleared, one police officer and one of Assata’s companions lay dead. Assata, shot in the back and dragged from the car, lay wounded: she was tortured and only taken to a hospital after much delay. Yet, Assata was sentenced to life +33 years in prison for the death of the state trooper.
On November 2, 1979, after nearly six years behind bars, she escaped and some time later emerged in Cuba where she received political asylum, according to international law.
In the 1990’s, rightist politicians and police bodies reinvigorated their attempts to pursue Assata Shakur. And recently, on May 2nd, 2005, the FBI and the New Jersey State Troopers publicly announced a $1 million bounty for her capture.
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