In 2005, Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the board for the Cuban American Foundation, listens to Albio Sires, New Jersey state assembly speaker of the House, holds a reward pamphlet for Assata Shakur, who fled to Havana. Shakur was wanted for the shooting death of a New Jersey state trooper in 1979. File Photo by John Riley/EPA
The Cuban government has announced that exiled activist Assata Shakur died in Havana on Thursday at 78.
Shakur was a legendary figure within the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.
She was convicted of murder in the 1973 killing of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. She was shot twice during the incident, then taken to a hospital, where she claims she was beaten and tortured.
She escaped prison in 1979, then later fled to Cuba, which gave her political asylum. She has always proclaimed her innocence in the shooting.
Shakur was on the New Jersey most-wanted list and was the first woman on the FBI’s most-wanted list. The state tried to extradite her but wasn’t successful. She stayed in Cuba until her death with a $2 million reward for her capture.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said she died in Havana of health complications and advanced age.
In her autobiography, “Assata,” Shakur said: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
She was born as Joanne Byron in 1947 in Flushing, Queens, and grew up in New York City and Wilmington, N.C. She got involved in political activism at Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York. She changed her name after graduation and was also known as Joanne Chesimard.
The Black Liberation Army was a clandestine Marxist and Leninist organization that advocated armed resistance against systemic racism and state violence.
Shakur is survived by her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, and extended family.
Notable deaths of 2025
Robert RedfordHollywood legend Robert Redford (L) and his wife Sibylle Szaggars arrive on the red carpet before the screening of the film “All Is Lost” during the 66th annual Cannes International Film Festival in France on May 22, 2013. Redford, an actor, filmmaker and environmentalist who started the Sun Dance Film Festival and who starred in films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” died at the age of 89 on September 16. Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo
