The Cuban government announced on Friday that Assata Shakur had passed away at the age of 78. Shakur had lived in exile in since 1979, after escaping from a .
The Black liberation activist died of “health conditions and advanced age,” Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Her daughter Kakuya Shakur, also confirmed her mother’s death in a Facebook post.
Shakur, who was born Joanne Deborah Byron, had been convicted and sent to prison for killing a police officer. Shakur and her supporters maintained she was innocent.
Members of the Black Liberation Army stormed the female prison posing as visitors, taking two guards hostage and enabling Shakur to escape.
She emerged in Cuba in 1984, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum. In 2013, the FBI added her to its list of “most wanted terrorists.”
BLM celebrates Shakur’s ‘courage’
In her writings from Cuba, Shakur said she did not shoot anyone and had her hands in the air when she was wounded during the gunfight with New Jersey State Police troopers, where she was accused of murdering one of the policemen.
Many of her followers believed her and celebrated her role in Black activism in the 1970s.
Her writings became a rallying cry during the movement in recent years, although her opponents accused her of being influenced by Marxist and communist ideology.
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win,” Shakur wrote in a biography published in 1988.
“We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Black Lives Matter Grassroots Inc., the group representing activists of racial justice activists from across the US, paid tribute to Shakur on Friday.
“May her courage, wisdom, and deep, abiding love permeate through every dimension and guide us,” the group said in a statement.
“May our work be righteous and brave as we fight in her honor and memory.”
Edited by: Zac Crellin
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