On this day, 16 July 1947, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur was born in Queens, New York City. After graduating from college she briefly joined the Black Panther Party, followed by the urban guerrilla group the Black Liberation Army which was engaging in armed struggle against the government, robbing banks and killing drug dealers and police officers.
In 1973 Shakur was wounded in a shootout with police, arrested and later jailed for the alleged killing of a police officer. She escaped from prison in 1979 with the help of three BLA members and was granted asylum in Cuba, where she lives to this day. US government officials continue to press for her extradition, and early in 2021 the Republican administration labelled Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, citing their harbouring of Shakur.
Assata Shakur was also the step-aunt and godmother to murdered hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. She has long been an advocate of direct action as a tool for social change, arguing: "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them."
We have made available numerous books by other former members of the Panthers and the BLA here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthers
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