On the revolutionary hope of Assata Shakur 

On Thursday, Sept. 25, political activist and Black revolutionary Assata Olugbala Shakur passed away peacefully at the age of 78. She died free in Havana, Cuba, where she had lived for 40 years as a political refugee due to “health conditions and advanced age,” according to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the aftermath, right-wing sources from Kash Patel to the New York Post Editorial Board have been quick to celebrate her passing and condemn any of those who would mourn her. They refer to her as a cop-killer, terrorist, extremist and coward, but anyone who truly knows her story understands that nothing could be further from the truth. The life and death of Assata Shakur is a story of hope in the face of a government that would go to any length to silence her. By setting the record straight and retelling Assata’s true story of relentless struggle, we see the importance of hope and revolutionary optimism in combating the injustice of fascism now and forever. 

To begin, it’s worth re-establishing exactly who and what Assata was. The most immediate thing that most media pundits and establishment politicians would reply to that question is that she was a convicted murderer, but this is hardly an accurate descriptor. Assata Shakur was a political activist who was the subject of an intense repressive campaign from the FBI through its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). This was a massive project undertaken by federal intelligence agencies throughout the country to “discredit, disrupt, and destroy” any dissident activist organizations by any means necessary. This ranged everywhere from nonprofits like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to specific targeting of prominent figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Huey Newton and Assata Shakur. Their tactics included extensive spying and infiltrating of groups, as well as encouraging and provoking groups to violence (the FBI once sent fake letters to the Black Panther Party warning them that another group was planning to attack them, hoping that violence would ensue and leaders could be arrested). They also urged local police to immediately arrest known activist leaders “on every possible charge” should they get the chance.  

This is what happened to Assata. She was indicted 10 times on trumped-up charges attempting to connect her to various violent crimes. The first nine times, the government could not prove her guilt, with several acquittals, hung juries and outright case dismissals. These cases were full of shady tactics, like in one kidnapping charge where the alleged victim was actually a paid FBI informant who “couldn’t talk about” if the FBI ordered him to frame Assata, according to her autobiography.  

The 10^th and final charge brought against her, the murder of a police officer, was equally suspect. Prosecutors claimed that Assata took the gun of an officer during a shootout that had resulted from a traffic stop and killed him with it; however, significant evidence casts doubt on this. There was no arsenic residue found on her body after the encounter, a hallmark sign that a person recently shot a gun. Medical experts also testified that she was shot in the back during the interaction, breaking her clavicle bone. This means that she was not facing them and shooting back, as prosecutors claimed, and a broken clavicle meant that she could not have physically raised her right arm to shoot back. There were also bullet wounds on her arm that experts testified could only have come from raised arms above the head, meaning that she was trying to surrender, further contradicting the prosecution’s story. It should be no surprise that the jury which convicted her of this murder, despite this overwhelming evidence against it, was completely white.  

As a result, she was sentenced to life in prison for a crime she did not commit. However, her story does not end here.  

With assistance from other Black Liberation Army members, Assata was able to escape from prison and the United States. She travelled to Cuba, where the government there gave her status and protection as a political refugee. Despite immense and long-term political pressure to give her up to American authorities, the Cuban government never swayed. Even when the FBI in 2013, under the Obama administration, elevated her to their Most Wanted List and placed a $2 million bounty on her head, they held to their values. It is clear that her peaceful life and death would never have happened without the incredible international solidarity which the Cuban government demonstrated.  

It is this ending which makes her story so beautiful and important to see. Although it is right to mourn the death of a truly revolutionary spirit, it is equally important recognize her story as one of hope. Through years of trials, incarceration, torture, beatings, uncertainty and repression, she never gave up. She struggled and fought until they could not keep her chained up any longer. And, in the end, against the full weight of the U.S. government and its corrupt criminal justice system, she won. She won and stole back 47 years of life as a free woman.  

So, in her memory, it is important to remember that it is always still possible to win. No matter how scary the world is or how strong the forces of this government may seem, there is still hope for a better future. In her own words, the message is simple:  

“I have been locked by the lawless. Handcuffed by the haters. Gagged by the greedy. And, if I know anything at all, it’s that a wall is just a wall and nothing more at all. It can be broken down.”