Assata Shakur, fugitive Black liberation activist, dies in Cuba at 78

Assata Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Chesimard and a longtime figure in the Black liberation movement, died Thursday in Havana, Cuba, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Officials attributed her death to health conditions and advanced age. Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed the death on social media. Shakur, a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, had lived in Cuba after receiving political asylum in 1984 following a life sentence in the United States.

Shakur's case has been a prism through which U.S.-Cuba relations have been viewed for decades. In 1973, she and two others were pulled over by New Jersey State Police on a car with a broken taillight; a gunfight ensued and one trooper, Werner Foerster, was killed and another officer wounded. Shakur fled the scene and was later captured in New Jersey, convicted in 1977 of murder, armed robbery and other crimes, and sentenced to life in prison. She was charged with additional bank robberies and in the nonfatal shootings of two other police officers, but most of those charges were dismissed or resulted in acquittal. A correction to an Associated Press report noted that Shakur was charged with attempted murder, not murder, in the shootings of two other officers.

Shakur's 1979 escape, when members of the Black Liberation Army, posing as visitors, stormed the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women, took two guards hostage and freed her, remains one of the most famous prison-break episodes in U.S. history. She disappeared for years before surfacing in Cuba, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum. The Cuban government has said its protection of Shakur is part of its broader opposition to what it calls a capitalist empire.

U.S. authorities, including during the Trump administration, long urged extradition. The FBI placed Shakur on its list of the bureau's most wanted terrorists for decades. The case has been emblematic of the fraught U.S.-Cuba relationship and the broader debate over exile, asylum and political violence.

Reaction in New Jersey highlighted the ongoing debate over accountability. New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Inganamort, who sponsored a resolution calling on Cuba to extradite Shakur, said “justice was never served” in Foerster's death, while the state police officers union dismissed Shakur “for her crime and cowardice.” Gov. Phil Murphy and State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan said they would “vigorously oppose” any attempt to repatriate her remains to the United States. Sundiata Acoli, who was convicted in Foerster's killing, was paroled in 2022 after nearly three decades in prison.

Shakur's writings and activism continued to influence movements and artists. Black Lives Matter Grassroots pledged to fight in her memory, and figures in hip-hop and politics have referenced her story at times, including Tupac Shakur's family and groups such as Public Enemy and Common.

Her death closes a controversial chapter in U.S. criminal-justice and exile history. While supporters view her as a symbol of resistance against oppression, many law enforcement officials and victims' families view her as a convicted felon who escaped accountability. The official confirmation from Havana ensures that the life of a polarizing figure will continue to spark debate over justice, memory and the limits of asylum.