Joanne Chesimard (1947- ), better known as Assata Shakur, is a black American revolutionary and former political prisoner. She now lives in political exile in Cuba. The FBI says she is a terrorist, “armed and extremely dangerous”, offering a million dollars for information leading to her arrest. Congress asked Cuba to turn her over. The New Jersey police asked the pope for help in getting her back. She is the aunt and godmother of Tupac Shakur.
In 1977 she was found guilty of first-degree murder for the 1973 shooting death of a policeman on the New Jersey Turnpike. She was broken out of prison in 1979 and, after five years of laying low, made her way to Cuba in 1984. Her autobiography, “Assata”, came out in 1987.
On May 2nd 1973 she and two friends of hers were driving down the New Jersey Turnpike when the police pulled them over. The police said it was for a broken tail light on their car, but more likely it was for driving while black. She was asked to put her hands up. She did but then was shot twice and then in the back. One of her friends tried to protect her. In the shoot out both her friend and one of the policemen were killed. Another policeman was wounded and so was her other friend.
Four years later an all-white jury found her guilty of murdering the policeman even though her hands were in the air (the only way her wounds make sense) and there was no proof she ever touched a gun.
With no hope of justice and fearing that she would be murdered in prison, she escaped and got to Cuba where she lives today. Fidel Castro himself said he will not give her up.
She had been on trial six times before on other charges, mainly bank robbery and murder, but none of the charges stuck. The government had no proof for any of it, not even for what they got her on in the end: they just wanted to keep her tied up in court and in prison.
In the 1970s the American government cracked down on black revolutionaries. The FBI used the police, the courts and, indirectly, the press. Some they killed outright, others they put in prison or tied up in the courts.
Shakur belongs to the Black Liberation Army, which broke off from the Black Panthers. She believes violence is necessary for blacks to become free and equal: it is the only way whites will give up enough power.
But she believes education is also necessary: guns will not do the trick if black people remain brainwashed, by the schools and by the news:
The schools we go to are reflections of the society that created them. Nobody is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them…I am convinced that a systematic program for political education, ranging from the simplest to the highest level, is imperative for any successful organization or movement for Black liberation in this country.
See also:
- Assata Shakur – Social Justice Wiki – a good website on her at Columbia University. The first draft of this post was way longer: there is so much I had to cut out. I only present the bare bones here. If you like that website, then you should read her book: do not wait for Hollywood.
- FBI: Wanted: Joanne Deborah Chesimard – see her wanted poster at the FBI
- Angela Davis – more famous; less violent in her philosophy
- Paul Robeson
- bell hooks
- driving while black
- The New Jersey Turnpike – the main road heading south from New York City. It is infamously racist – and postworthy.
- Some stuff I have in common with her:
- Jamaica, Queens – where she was born and spent a good part of her childhood
- Catholic – she was Catholic at least as a girl
- loves to read
- frequently stopped by the police
- Has a dim view of the press and the police – and of American world power
Wow Fidel Castro himself said he will not give her up. Now that’s hard.
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See, these are the stories about black women that really interests me. Women that few have heard of that are multi-dimensional (though she’s not exactly a role model).
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She’s not exactly a role model?!
In Brazil, Assata would probably be a senator by now. Plenty of people who took up arms to resist oppression in the 1960s and `70s now are.
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Excellent point.
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well, didn’t really mean it like that and it wasn’t my point. Point was, nice to read something about women who are different.
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I think she is a role model. Those interested should read Franz Fanon’s account in “Wretched of the Earth” to see why violence may very well just be necessary to shock the white majority of hate idiots in a wake up call.
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Wow. This woman is pretty cool. I’m a black woman and I will admit, I don’t see anything wrong with physical violence to prove a point. I mean “massa” didnt see anything wrong with violence when he whipped my ancestors on the plantation.
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Wow this amazing. I love reading stories about black women like this.
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I read her autobiography; it was really good. I will always wonder just exactly HOW she escaped from prison. That’s a feat in and of itself.
In those days; violence was constantly used against black people. It was either you stand up for your rights or you bow at the feet of the ones who are oppressing you. Have you ever stopped to wonder why the majority of our black and white (the few there were) freedom leaders were assassinated, beaten or framed on trumped up charges? It is not a coincidence. The violence used was reactionary; because violence and forms of terrorism had ALWAYS been used against black people before that period in time.
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assata shakur
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One thing that always strikes me is that the U.S. was supposedly a democaracy during this period and Brazil a dictatorship. However, if you start adding up deaths due to COINTELPRO, the Mississippi State Police’s death squad and other political murders, about the same number of American activists were murdered or dissappeared between 1964 and 1984 as Brazilian activists.
The only thing the States didn’t do was instituionalize torture. Then again, torture has always been a characteristic of Brazilian law enforcement, so I’m unsure as to whether or not this isn’t a cultural rather than a political issue.
And if you look at who survived that era, many of the American leaders of the armed resistance are still in jail or exile. The leader of our main radical syndicalist group is now the president of Brazil. The man who kidnapped the American ambassador back in 1968 (IIRC) is a senador for the state of Rio de Janeiro. The leader of one of the main Maoist groups back in the day served as minister of the interior for years.
Makes you wonder which country really is more democratic.
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I think that is a good comparison between Brazilian state violence and the American COINTELPRO (referred to in the post as the FBI cracking down on revolutionaries). I noticed that too – that America by being “freer” is less free.
Respectable political opinion in America is much narrower than in Brazil or Europe. As Chomsky pointed out, there is not even one socialist columnist in America. Partly I think that is because of the cold war, which brought us COINTELPRO, the McCarthy witch hunts, the Hollywood black list and so on.
Notice that Assata Shakur was being punished not for any crime but for her opinions. She was guilty of thought crime. As were Angela Davis and Paul Robeson:
Also I think the American government was afraid Shakur would become part of a new black leadership, one far more dangerous than what we have been left with.
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Well, I’d also say that the Brazilian system also points out capitalism’s great power for coopting people.
As The Clash once said:
I believe in this
(And it’s been tested by research):
He who f#$%s nuns
Will later join the church.
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^ that is very nicely done Thaddeus Blanchette.
said it all much better than I could have done in english
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I am surprised she would say that – and, in any case, how would you enforce it?
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So you are saying Assata has no white trolls on her website? If so, I would love to know how she did it.
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Merri May:
I just deleted your comment – because it led me to delete Thaddeus’s comment too. Thanks.
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Ok, that’s perfectly fine, was only highlighting how it’s not ok and unfair for one poster to say that to another.
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Young black people of diaspora hath to find ways like my sista here to spread knowledge
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I recently started reading about Assata after the Common brouhaha. Look, I didn’t vote for Obama and I won’t vote for him BUT – why does anyone care if he likes rap music and invited Common to the WH? I read the Song to Assata lyrics and it’s not misogynistic or violent – he is just defending Assata who he thinks is innocent.
And, the more I read about her – I think she WAS innocent.
I am against violence. I think Gandhi once said “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” And if blacks think “well, it’s OK for us to beat up on whites ’cause their ancestors enslaved us” – they might end up beating up whites whose ancestors were abolitionists, or who immigrated here in the 1940s or who supported the Freedom Riders. I mean, you can’t hold peoples’ descendants responsible for their crimes.
All that being said – when I read the history of what black people suffered under segregation – I can totally understand why there was violence.
Of course, it’s part and parcel of man’s inhumanity to man – the Nazis killed Jews and Slavs and so on. The Russians let 6 million people starve in the Ukraine. Andrew Jackson authored the Trail of Tears. In Africa, Arabs are still enslaving little black boys and sodomizing them. Sexual slavery occurs everywhere. It’s just mind boggling how awful people are to each other.
America, however, was supposed to be different – we were supposed to be a country where all men were created equal and which was founded by Christians. Well, how can any Christian justify segregation? The Bible says we are to love our neighbor – it never specifies skin color when it says that. God doesn’t see skin color – He loves all His children. Racism is unjustifiable.
It makes me really angry to think that this poor woman was sent to jail for murder when she was innocent. It’s just plain wrong.
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You should do an article on Tupac Shakur, he was very socially conscious and was killed for his message.
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Sometimes when me and mother are on the highway(Driving of course. lol) We’ll see the electric billboard out there still looking for her arrest. Funny, how she’s considered a terrorist.
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Glad a post was made about her. Just starting to learn about her and it is amazing how what is said about black movements here is what is happening to BLM.
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Nice Post!
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I just read this fire bomb of a quote of hers on Twitter about what a liberal is. She succinctly describes what I could not articulate. I now feel compelled to purchase the book of her autobiography. I have been trying to learn exactly what a liberal is and that quote from Assata Shakur’s biography was an answer to my question on that subject. She is very intelligent I want to learn more about her.
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@ Mary Burrell
Can you share the quote?
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@ Afrofem
“I have never really understood exactly what a “liberal” is, since I have heard “liberals” express every conceivable opinion on every on every conceivable subject. As far as I can tell, you have the extreme right, who are fascist racist capitalist dogs like Ronald Reagan, who come right out and let you know where they’re coming from. And on the opposite end, you have the left, who are supposed to be committed to justice, equality, and human rights. And somewhere between those two points is the liberal.
As far as I’m concerned, “liberal” is the most meaningless word in the dictionary. History has shown me that as long as some white middle class people can live high on the hog, take vacations to Europe, send their children to private schools, and reap the benefits of their white skin privilege, then they are “liberal.” But when times get hard and money gets tight, they pull of that liberal mask and you think you are talking to Adolf Hitler. They feel sorry for the so called underprivileged just as long as they can maintain their own privileges.”—Assata Shakur
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they pull off typo^^^
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Thank you, Mary.
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“They feel sorry for the so called underprivileged just as long as they can maintain their own privileges.”
So very true! Goes hand-in-hand with paternalistic racism. You see people doing good things, helpful things, but at the end of the day, they only feel good because it reinforces their racist notions of superiority.
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@Open Minded Observer:👍🏿
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idk honestly idk what to think, i know my buddy he’s a moor and he swears it was a setup i guess it’s said she and someone else i think he died, a black man, capped a couple nj state troopers on the turnpike, i forget what exit but i was called sheeple for supposedly believing the press relase, she has like a 1million us bounty from nj at least, she’s i think in cuba, it’s a whole thing, i swear i don’t know the same guy said mumia al jabar is also falsely held, their reps are not good, so what are you going to do
zyed a dude iguess
https://www.thenation.com/article/assata-shakur-not-terrorist/
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liberal? eh. i dont have a 503c or whatever i mean in the hood you can really dissolve into yourself it’s a little more tolerant? of some general oddness, i never found that in the white community it stands for at least not republican, american style right now like that is
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@ v8driver
“idk honestly idk what to think, i know my buddy he’s a moor and he swears it was a setup i guess it’s said she and someone else i think he died, a black man, capped a couple nj state troopers on the turnpike…”
I do know. It would have been extremely difficult for Shakur to have “capped” anyone with her hands in the air and later wounded three times, one from a gunshot to the back.
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I trust Assata Shakur WAY more than New Jersey state troopers. They are notoriously racist:
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@afrofem i didnt forget the thing about coming out of the woods isnt in the first order articles
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