Assata Shakur, a symbol of Black liberation and resilience, has passed away in Cuba at 78.

Havana, Cuba — Assata Olugbala Shakur, known to many as one of the most polarizing and enduring figures of the Black liberation movement, died on September 25, 2025, in Havana, where she had lived in exile for decades. According to Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the cause was “health conditions and advanced age.”

Assata Shakur

Her death marks the end of a contentious chapter in American history — one in which issues of justice, race, dissent, and power remain as fraught as ever.

From JoAnne Byron to Assata Shakur: Early Life and Radicalization

Born JoAnne Deborah Byron in Queens, New York, on July 16, 1947, she spent her early years in a family wracked by financial tension and instability.  After her parents divorced when she was three, she lived with her maternal grandparents in Wilmington, North Carolina, before returning to New York to live with her mother and stepfather.

Her adolescence was unsettled. She occasionally ran away, lived with acquaintances, and later was taken in by her aunt, Evelyn Williams, a civil-rights activist whose influence she later credited as formative in awakening her political consciousness.  She briefly attended City College of New York before moving to Oakland, California, where she joined the Black Panther Party. Back in New York, she led community outreach efforts in Harlem—free breakfast programs, health clinics, education campaigns—though she later parted ways with the party over what she perceived as patriarchal dynamics and ideological disagreements.

Around 1971, she adopted the name Assata Olugbala Shakur, rejecting her birth and married names (Byron and Chesimard) as “slave names,” and in solidarity with radical movements she admired and comrades she lost.

By the early 1970s, Shakur became associated with the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a clandestine organization committed to armed resistance against systemic racism and police violence. The BLA was considered an offshoot of the Black Panther Party, but one willing to adopt more militant tactics, including bank robberies, bombings, and direct attacks on law enforcement.

The Turnpike Shootout, Trials, and Conviction

Assata Shakur wanted photo

On May 2, 1973, an incident on the New Jersey Turnpike brought Assata Shakur to national attention. A state trooper stopped a car carrying Shakur, Zayd Malik Shakur, and Sundiata Acoli—all members or associates of the BLA. A fierce shootout ensued, leaving trooper Werner Foerster dead and trooper James Harper wounded; Zayd Malik Shakur was also killed. Assata was seriously wounded and arrested.

In the years that followed, she was indicted on multiple charges—murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, kidnapping—across New York and New Jersey.  Of these charges, she was acquitted or saw cases dismissed in several, but in 1977 she was convicted by an all-white jury of the murder of Trooper Foerster and other counts tied to the Turnpike incident. Her defense contended that medical evidence showed her right arm was so paralyzed that she could not have fired a weapon, that she had pleaded for her life, and that she had raised her hands.

She was sentenced to life in prison and transferred to the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women, where she claimed she endured abusive treatment, long periods in solitary confinement, and medical neglect.  Her only daughter, Kakuya, was born during this stage—Shakur gave birth while held in custody.

Escape, Exile, and Asylum in Cuba

On November 2, 1979, with assistance from BLA members and affiliates of what was known as “the Family” or the May 19 Communist Organization, Assata Shakur escaped from the maximum security prison in New Jersey. Hostages were taken (later released), and she was spirited away in a van from the prison via a staged operation.

She spent some time underground in the U.S., moving between cities, before eventually crossing to the Bahamas and then arriving in Cuba in 1984, where Fidel Castro’s government granted her political asylum.

Despite repeated U.S. efforts to secure her extradition, Cuba refused. Over time, Shakur remained a vocal critic of U.S. racial injustice, capitalism, and state violence from her residence in Havana. She became a symbol—particularly within radical activist spheres—of defiance and resistance.

In 2013, she was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list under her legal name Joanne Deborah Chesimard, the first woman so designated. A reward of $2 million was offered for information leading to her capture.

Cultural Legacy, Contention, and Impact

Assata Shakur’s life never faded into obscurity. Her 1987 memoir, Assata: An Autobiography, written while in exile, became a key text in radical political education, especially among younger generations engaging with questions of race, resistance, and justice.

Her name also resonated deeply within art, culture, and hip-hop. Artists such as Common, Nas, Public Enemy, Paris, and The Roots have invoked her name or dedicated songs to her, often framing her as a martyr and revolutionary.  Activist groups like “Hands Off Assata!” and organizations like Assata’s Daughters in Chicago have centered her as both inspiration and symbol in ongoing fights for Black liberation.

To critics—law enforcement, government officials, and certain public commentators—she remained a fugitive, a convicted murderer, and a symbol of militancy they viewed as threatening. Her refusal to return to the U.S. and face further trial became a point of moral contention and political tension over sovereignty, justice, and accountability.

Death and Reflections

In death, like in life, Assata Shakur elicits divided reactions. To her supporters, she will be mourned as an icon of resilience and radical hope. To her detractors, her passing will be a final reminder of unresolved wounds in the American justice system.

Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed her mother’s death via a social media post, writing, “Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I’m feeling at this time.”

New Jersey officials issued statements lamenting that she died abroad, never having returned to the U.S. to face full legal reckoning.

Yet across the United States and the diaspora, many will memorialize her words: “To struggle, to fight, to build.” Her life, complicated and contested, underscores the enduring challenges of racial injustice, political dissent, and historical memory.

Assata Shakur’s story will remain in textbooks, playlists, protest signs, and activist curricula—not merely as a cautionary tale, but as a provocation: What kinds of dissent do societies tolerate, and which do they criminalize?