44 Search results for "assata shakur"

President Donald Trump is continuing his mission to undo as much of Barack Obama’s legacy as possible. Last week, the president spoke in Miami about the U.S.’s relationship with Cuba. During his head-scratching speech, he called on the country to send back one of the country’s most famous residents. 

Assata Shakur has been living in exile in Cuba since 1979 when she escaped from jail while serving a sentence for the death of a New Jersey state trooper she’s long fought against. As a result, she’s been separated from family and has grandchildren she hasn’t yet met. However, Barack Obama becoming the first sitting […]

Members of UC Berkeley’s Black Student Union have called for Barrows Hall, the academic building that “houses Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies and African-American Studies” to be renamed after Assata Shakur, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. That request is one of 10 demands to the college’s administration to provide safe spaces for black students. Other demands include creating an African-American resource center, hiring black administrators. […]

Cuba has made it very clear that they will not be returning Assata Shakur to the United States. From The Root: “I can say it is off the table,” Gustavo Machin, the deputy director for American affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, replied when asked if Shakur, whose birth name is Joanne Chesimard, […]

  The following piece is from Chicago Tribune. It was written by Achy Obejas. By: Achy Obejas She’s on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. Why Cuba protects her.

      Cuba said Monday that it has a right to grant asylum to U.S. fugitives, the clearest sign to date that the communist government will not extradite America’s most wanted woman despite warming bilateral ties. 

    A new Change.org petition is calling for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to pardon Assata Shakur. Shakur was arrested during a traffic stop in New Jersey. A shootout left her injured with multiple wounds, the driver, Zayd Shakur dead, and a state trooper dead. After several trials, she was convicted of first degree […]

  New Jersey state authorities said they hope the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations announced by President Obama will aid the capture and return of Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), who escaped prison and fled to the island after being convicted of killing a New Jersey State Police trooper. 

  The following piece is from Praxis. It was written by Dara Cooper. By: Dara Cooper This past November 2nd was the 35th anniversary of a day celebrated by many as Assata Shakur Liberation Day. It is the day former Black Panther Assata Shakur was liberated from a maximum-security prison, a day many acknowledge as a celebration […]

  The following piece is from The Guardian. It was written by Angela Davis. By: Angela Davis Although racist state violence has been a consistent theme in the history of people of African descent in North America, it has become especially noteworthy during the administration of the first African-American president, whose very election was widely […]

A petition has been launched demanding that President Obama remove Assata Shakur from the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list.

Alice Walker ruminates on the continued harassment and persecution of Assata Shakur in a recent blog post: “But nothing seems as cruel to me as this: that our big, muscular, macho country would go after so tiny a woman as Assata who is given sanctuary in a country smaller than many of our states.”