AILSA CHANG, HOST:
For decades, Assata Shakur has been a towering figure in American movements for Black liberation and racial justice. Since the 1970s, she's also been one of the country's most wanted fugitives after her conviction for a police officer's murder. She died in exile in Cuba yesterday at 78. NPR's Adrian Florido has this remembrance.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Assata Shakur was a central figure in the Black Liberation Army formed in the early 70s by former Black Panthers who took up arms in the fight against the oppression of Black people. In 1973, Shakur and two other BLA members were pulled over by state troopers in New Jersey. Exactly what happened next has always been in dispute, but there was a shootout that left an officer and one of Shakur's companions dead and Shakur and a second officer shot. She denied having fired, but in 1977, she was convicted of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison. Two years later, armed men helped her escape.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: She made her break this afternoon from the prison in Clinton, New Jersey. And lawmen once called her the soul of the Black Liberation Army.
FLORIDO: She went into hiding, but fled to Cuba in 1984. Fidel Castro granted her asylum. Years later, she spoke with NBC News there.
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RALPH PENZA: Did you shoot Werner Foerster?
ASSATA SHAKUR: No, I did not. I was shot with my arms in the air, then shot again in the back and then left on the ground to die.
FLORIDO: The FBI called Shakur, whose legal name was Joanne Chesimard, a cold-blooded killer. But Shakur's supporters considered her a hero because of her unapologetic and radical activism against racial oppression. She summed up her views in that NBC interview.
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SHAKUR: People have the right to free themselves from oppression by whatever means they deem possible.
FLORIDO: In recent years, racial justice activists across the U.S. have started protests by chanting something Shakur wrote.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: It is our duty to win.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: It is our duty to win.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We must love...
FLORIDO: Robyn Spencer-Antoine is an historian of the Black Power movement at The City University of New York. She says Shakur became a symbol of fierce determination to resist.
ROBYN SPENCER-ANTOINE: That she was incarcerated and persecuted but then had a life beyond the walls of prison, a life beyond the borders of the United States I think really captured the imagination.
FLORIDO: Before her 1977 murder conviction, officials had tried many times to prosecute Shakur for other crimes, but she was never convicted of those. She always said officials would do anything to put her away, which is why she refused to return to the U.S. In a statement, Cuba's government said she died of health conditions and advanced age.
Adrian Florido, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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