Assata Shakur

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Assata Shakur

Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947 in New York City as Joanne Deborah Byron , married Chesimard ) is an American militant political activist who was convicted of murder in the 1970s and fled to Cuba . In the US, it is on the list of most wanted terrorists the FBI .

Life

In the late 1960s, the student Assata Shakur came into contact with the emerging civil rights movement in the USA. She exchanged her "slave name" Joanne Deborah Byron for the self-chosen African one. Shakur became politicized and joined the Black Panther Party, for which she was active at universities, among other things, and worked with children from black communities. She later joined the militant arm of the movement and became a member of the black-nationalist- Marxist underground organization Black Liberation Army .

On May 2, 1973, her car was stopped for a traffic violation while wanted for a number of crimes. In the shooting that followed, one policeman was killed and one was critically injured. Shakur was shot and arrested shortly afterwards with one companion, the other was killed in the exchange of fire. In criminal proceedings, she was sentenced to life imprisonment for, among other things, first-degree murder; the surviving companion also received life imprisonment. However, Shakur insisted that he did not shoot himself.

On November 2, 1979, she was freed from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women by an armed Black Liberation Army detachment. She has been on the FBI's wanted list ever since. She lived underground until 1984, when she was granted political asylum in Cuba .

On May 2, 2013, the FBI placed a bounty of up to $ 1 million on her capture for her 1979 prison escape. Another million comes from the state of New Jersey . Since she is classified as a " domestic terrorist " ( inner American terrorist ), she is the first woman on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists .

In the course of the negotiation process initiated in December 2014 to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States , Assata Shakur's situation also moved back into the focus of media coverage. However, the Cuban government ruled out an extradition discussed by the United States on the grounds that it upholds its right to grant political asylum to people at its own discretion.

Assata Shakur was the godmother of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was violently killed in 1996, and has been mentioned several times in music in the rap scene. Chuck D (the band Public Enemy ), Paris , David Rovics and Common dedicated songs to her, among others . Commons performance of “A Song for Assata” at an event in the White House in May 2011 caused a controversy.

literature

  • Assata Shakur: Assata. An autobiography from the black resistance in the USA (Bremen 1990/91: Agipa-Press) ISBN 3-926529-02-4 ; (New edition: Bremen 2003: Atlantik-Verlag) ISBN 3-926529-44-X
  • Assata Shakur: An Interview in Havana / Cuba (Bremen, Agipa-Press, June 1992, booklet with 15 pages and illustrations) ISBN 3-926529-07-5 .

Web links

Commons : Assata Shakur  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Life of Assata Shakur. Retrieved December 16, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Junge Welt, May 4, 2013 ( Memento from May 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ FBI wanted bulletin
  4. ↑ First woman on the list of the most wanted terrorists , Focus Online from May 3, 2013.
  5. ↑ Terror suspects in the USA: FBI puts first woman on "Most Wanted" list , Spiegel Online from May 3, 2013.
  6. ↑ Cuba: America's most wanted woman Assata Shakur will not be extradited, in: The Guardian of December 23, 2014, accessed on January 26, 2015 (English)
  7. ↑ Sean Posey: Assata Shakur: Still America's Nightmare? in: The Hampton Institute of July 2, 2013, accessed January 26, 2015
  8. ^ Sara Just: Common Controversy Comes to White House Poetry Night; Cops, Conservatives Cry Foul at Some of His Past Work, ( Memento from January 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) in: ABC news from May 11, 2011, accessed on January 26, 2015 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Shakur, Assata
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shakur, Assata Olugbala; Byron, Joanne Deborah (maiden name); Chesimard, Joanne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American political activist, member of the Black Panther Party
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City