Assata: An Autobiography

Shakur: An Autobiography traces events from Shakur Shakur’s early childhood to her time as a political refugee in Cuba. While the book was first published in 1988, this guide references the 2014 edition of the autobiography, which features a foreword written by Angela Davis and Lennox Hill.

Content Warning: The source text and this study guide contain descriptions of racism, racist violence, and sexual abuse in a carceral context.

Summary

Shakur Olugbala Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron) grew up in North Carolina and New York, first as the rambunctious granddaughter of two strict grandparents in the South and later as the rebellious daughter of a single mother in the North during a time of racial segregation. Her family taught her about how to survive as a young Black girl in a racist society, lessons that became invaluable when she became more involved with political organizing in her adulthood. After graduating from the City College of New York—where she developed a new, more critical perspective on US history—she moved to Oakland, California, where she joined the Black Panther Party. With the BPP, she worked to organize community education programs that served as a continuation and expansion of her own education at CCNY.

After moving back to New York, she served in a leadership role in the BBP’s Harlem chapter, where she worked to coordinate mutual aid programs including a free breakfast program for children. Eventually, she became disillusioned with what she saw as the macho and competitive culture of the New York BPP, and she joined the Black Liberation Army—an offshoot of the BPP that focused on underground, armed resistance against racist oppression.

After the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) launched a series of covert operations to undermine the Black Panther Party, the BLA became convinced that armed resistance was the only means by which Black revolutionary groups could survive. They engaged in a number of illegal activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including assassinations of police officers and bank robberies. On May 2, 1973, Shakur was driving with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli on the New Jersey Turnpike when New Jersey state troopers stopped them. Shakur had several warrants for her arrest on charges that included an alleged kidnapping and two bank robberies—charges of which she was later acquitted in court. The confrontation led to a shootout that resulted in Zayd’s death as well as those of two state troopers.

Severely injured, Shakur was hospitalized and then incarcerated between 1973 and 1977 for the shooting in addition to the previous criminal charges. For four years, Shakur was tortured and kept in solitary confinement while she awaited trial. Though she was acquitted of all charges stemming from her prior warrants, she was found guilty in the New Jersey Turnpike shooting. With the help of other Black activists, she escaped the maximum-security prison where she was held and remains a political refugee in Cuba.