She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she now resides. Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou. An Autobiography By Assata Shakur, Foreword by Angela Davis. On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local. Publisher: Chicago Review PressBiography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - African American & Black / Criminals.

With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder. A deadly encounter fifty years ago between the New Jersey State Police and a group of Black activists turned Assata Shakur into a cultural icon and an enduring political villain. The book traces her early childhood to the time she was granted political refugee status in Cuba.

On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Getty Images Joanne Chesimard, or Assata Shakur, is New Jersey’s most wanted fugitive for killing a state trooper and then fleeing to Cuba in 1979. Assata: An Autobiography is an autobiography of Assata Shakur.

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