On the afternoon of November 5, 1979, Bronx activist Muntu Matsimela took to the stage in front of U.N. headquarters in New York for Black Solidarity Day. He announced that “comrade-Sister Assata Shakur was freed from racist captivity” just three days prior by members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). (Holley, 2023, pp. 159-160) This news was celebrated in Black media at the time and remained a legendary moment in the minds of many conscious African Americans ever since. Her passing on September 25, 2025 marks another major victory for the Black Liberation struggle in the U.S. The fact that she was able to die a free woman under political asylum in Cuba is a defeat to the FBI, the Fraternal Order of the Police, the state of New Jersey, and several American presidents who were unable to extradite her and return her to an American prison. Her life and death should be a reminder to the world that resistance to oppression can and will lead to victory.

First, one might ask: in what way is Assata’s death in exile a victory? To answer this, we must consider Assata in her historical context. She follows in a long history of Maroons and resistance fighters who refused to accept life under oppressive conditions in the Americas. In his book, the Counterrevolution of 1776, Gerald Horne cites the Maroon communities of Jamaica as a prime example of African resistance to imperial powers. According to Horne, these Maroon fighters were able to attain a type of autonomy, fear, and respect in the Western Hemisphere because they resisted imperial oppression. For instance, under the leadership of Cudjoe, the Maroons of Jamaica (known as the “Madagascars”) staged a series of attacks on the British just as they had on the Spanish before them. This campaign led to a 1738 treaty with the Brits, thus recognizing their sovereignty. Such a treaty was deemed a humiliation for London and a victory for the Africans of Jamaica.(Horne, 2014, pp. 100-101) Resistance to slavery was a continuous campaign that lasted lifetimes but it was overcome. Assata’s revolutionary acts were only a moment, but her movement against racist imperialism will overcome.

Secondly, it is important to know that Assata, like Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells before her, belonged to a later iteration of those earlier movements. The New York Black Panther Party, Young Lords, and the BLA of the 1970’s forced the US government entities to respond to their actions. For instance, their activism at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx led to the Patient’s Bill of Rights.(Holley, 2023, p. 99) Afeni Shakur’s work with the Black Panthers and Bronx Legal Services led to reforms to tenant’s rights and eviction laws.(Holley, 2023, pp. 83-84) Similarly, the targeted retribution of police guilty of extrajudicial corporal and capital punishments made police forces think twice about molesting the Black community. Additionally, they began to hire Black police officers to improve their image. In all of these examples and more, the movement to which Assata belonged forced the state to respond. The lesson in this is that the many protections we enjoy in the U.S. in health, housing, education, employment, roadways, and other areas comes from the activism of regular people and not the kind hearts of the capitalist and ruling class.

It must also be mentioned that Assata Shakur was a Black Nationalist in the true meaning of the term. That is to say, she was part of a movement towards nationhood outside of the constructs of the United States. She answered the call of Martin Delany, who wrote in 1852, that African populations within the US are “a nation within a nation.” This was exemplified by Maroon societies of Jamaica, the Seminoles of Florida, and various attempts in the piedmont and swamps of Virginia before him. And subsequently, the call for statehood was the position of every radical black political movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. They had different iterations, from Edward McCabe’s call for Black people to move en mass to the Oklahoma Territory to the Chicago-based National Movement for the Establishment of the 49th State, which aimed to establish an autonomous Black state in the South. African American Communists of the 1920’s and 30’s would imagine the “Black Belt Republic.” Likewise, the Nation of Islam would also advocate for a similar state to be established in the South. The movement that Assata Shakur was most closely associated with was the Republic of New Afrika whose modus operandi was to operate as a sovereign government until they achieved their goal of acquiring land. Assata and her comrades in the BLA were part of its armed wing.(Holley, 2023, pp. 91-94)

Concluding Thoughts

Every time I learn that another luminary of the revolution has passed away, my resolve strengthens for the renewed education about these individuals and the accurate preservation of their legacies. While we can never hope for fair treatment by corporate media outlets, I have watched more informed independent media like Marc Lamont Hill, Democracy Now!, and Willie D make Assata’s importance about her innocence. We should be clear that she was not simply a “leader by victimhood,” as her comrade Dhoruba Bin-Wahad would say. She was not like the many people who are convicted of a crime that she did not commit and was subsequently rescued and desperately fled to Cuba. Rather, she was an active member in a group that was dedicated to relieving Black communities of some of the pressure of police brutality in the 1970’s. Her service in the BLA as not only a soldier, but a theorist and a strategist, cannot go overlooked by history. Therefore, the central issues in Assata’s case was about the human right of the Black community to organize to defend itself and its human right of self-determination.

This does not mean that the actions of the BLA should not be analyzed and scrutinized or repeated. Indeed, Assata and surviving BLA members were able to reflect on their actions as they matured. But the world could use their bravery, audacity, and fortitude to combat the forces of genocide and imperialism today, just as we see in the Global Sumud Flotillas to Gaza. The BLA were aware of the consequences, repercussions, and sacrifices of their actions. Many did not survive, many remain in prison, and many remained in prison several decades before being released. Assata was unique because she was able to break free and remain free. In this people can find strength, inspiration, and hope, whether in Gaza or Chicago. In the infamous words of Assata:

And, if i know anything at all,

it’s that a wall is just a wall

and nothing more at all.

It can be broken down.(Shakur, 1987, p. 2)

In some instances, a wall can be climbed and burrowed underneath. Occasionally it can be restored or rebuilt. But to anyone paying attention it is obvious that the wall is crumbling.

References

Holley, Santi Elijah. 2023. An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created. First edition. Mariner Books.

Horne, Gerald. 2014. The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and The Origins of the United States of America. New York University Press.
Shakur, Assata. 1987. Assata: An Autobiography. With Angela Davis. Zed Books / Lawrence Hill and Company.