Assata Shakur, fugitive on FBI 'Most Wanted' list and Tupac Shakur's godmother, dies in Cuba

By Dorothy Sedovic
Published: Sep. 26, 2025 at 12:48 PM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago

(Gray News) - Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist wanted by the FBI since she escaped a U.S. prison in 1979, has died in Cuba.

Shakur, who was born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, died Thursday in Havana from “health conditions and advanced age,” according to Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Associated Press reported her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, also confirmed her death.

She was 78 years old.

Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, as well as the godmother and step-aunt of Tupac Shakur

In 2013, the FBI made her the first woman on its list of “most wanted terrorists” and placed a $2 million bounty on her head, CNN reported.

More:
https://www.kcrg.com/2025/09/26/assata-shakur-fugitive-fbis-most-wanted-list-tupac-shakurs-godmother-dies-cuba/

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Assata Shakur — the Legacy of a Defiant Freedom Fighter

By Delaina Dixon | September 26, 2025


Freedom Fighter. Fugitive. Assata Shakur. Shakur, an American rebel whose activism and identity polarized a nation, has died. A fearless advocate and revolutionary whose life was devoted to the fight for Black liberation and social justice, through her writing and actions, she challenged systems of oppression and inspired generations to demand freedom, truth and dignity.

Her commitment to activism—and subsequent convictions—sent her on the run, first escaping prison and then finding political asylum in Cuba, where she lived out her days.

Born Joanne Deborah Byron (and later Chesimard) in 1947, Shakur spent her childhood in Queens, New York; and Wilmington, North Carolina, where she witnessed the clashes between race, class and power. She experienced racism, sexism and police brutality firsthand, witnessing the death of a friend, and felt compelled to fight for liberation, using any means necessary.

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, she found her path in the Black Panther Party and later, the Black Liberation Army, where she was fully committed to bringing about radical change for Black Americans, particularly in healthcare, prison reform and political equality.

​Charged with several crimes and the subject of a multi-state manhunt, in May 1973, Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey State Turnpike that left a state trooper and a member of BLA dead. Shakur was charged and convicted of murder in 1977, though her defense team showed that her paralyzed arm would have made it impossible for her to fire the trooper's fatal shot.

More:
https://www.ebony.com/assata-shakur-dead-dies-cuba-exile-78/