Assata: An autobiography – Assata Shakur

If there needs to be a movie made of someone’s life, it needs to be this shero.  Born Joanne Chesimard, Assata grew up amidst the segregated jim crow of the south and also experienced the collective racism that was exhibited in the north.  Like many children of the 60’s, she noticed a growing movement to fight back against these injustices and she eventually changed her name to Assata, “she who struggles” Olugbala,”for the people” Shakur, “the thankful one”, then joined the Black Liberation Army and then ultimately becoming a strong force in the Black Panther Party.

But the most poignant inclusions in the biography is her incarceration and the abuse she received.

On May 2, 1973, she, Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike by State Trooper James Harper and backed up by Trooper Werner Foerster, for driving with a broken tail light. Mind you, she was a member of the BLA, former member of BPP and wanted for various felonies. So the tensions were high. The details of the shootout vary by whomever story you want to believe but the facts are that Zayd and Trooper Foerster were killed, Trooper Harper lied in his testimony that Assata shot him, Assata was wounded in such a manner that it was impossible for her to have fired the weapon that injured Trooper Harper, the subsequent trial was moved from diverse Middlesex County to mostly white Morris County (not Union or Essex Counties, both of which had an even more diverse pool of potential jurors) and she was incarcerated in a men’s prison.

Her trial was unfair; the defense wasn’t allowed to choose any jurors AND when questioned, many jurors knew of Ms. Shakur and outright said, ‘she’s probably guilty,’ during the voire dire. A few jurors were dismissed as a result but the damage was already set.

Found guilty under these circumstances, she lingered in prison for 7 years…

Summation; You witness jim crow and segregation laws your entire life, you see the injustices of the police force enacted throughout your community, you fight these systems and are incarcerated by a system NOT designed to protect YOU, what would YOU do?

Treated as a slave, she escaped – and has been free ever since.