From Fugitive to Icon: The Enduring Legacy of Assata Shakur

After spending 46 years as one of America's longest-standing fugitives, political and liberation activist Assata Shakur, born Joanne Chesimard, is dead. News broke in the early morning of Sept. 26 that one of the most sought-after members of America’s Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA) had passed away from “health conditions and old age” — with an active $2 million bounty for her capture still intact. To the American government, Shakur was nothing more than a fugitive, but to Black and Brown communities, she was much more: she was the soul of rebellion personified as a Black woman, fighting for Black people. As Tupac Shakur’s godmother and step-aunt, her name and her fight were etched into hip-hop’s expressive DNA and ingrained into its lyrics. To the culture, her actions are celebrated as proof that survival itself is resistance, and she fought til her death. 

Following her escape from New Jersey’s Clinton Correctional Facility in 1979, she vanished from the public eye, just as the Black American community entered into an ineffable era of political violence and racial discrimination. Hip-hop artists used lyrical prose and hard-hitting beats as protest as they rapped against police brutality and vowed to take on any government entity upholding racist ideologies — from the feds to your local boys in blue. To fight the power, as Public Enemy would say, emcees called out Shakur by name, honoring her stand-off with the American government and recognizing her fight for freedom in their own struggle to live shackle-free. 

The BPP member wasn’t seen again until 1984, when she resurfaced in Cuba — the same year she received political asylum from Fidel Castro. Four years later, Public Enemy released “Rebel Without A Pause,” letting fans, the government, and anyone else listening know that they were “recorded and ordered” and a “supporter of Chesimard.” This public nod opened the door for other artists to push the envelope in their own work.

In 1991, 2Pac dropped “Words of Wisdom,” a track criticizing the country’s social and economic disparities and calling on Black America to fight for justice, and die if they must. Pac namedrops his godmother’s name at the song’s close, and refers to her as “America’s nightmare” alongside a slew of other activists applauded for their resistance in the near five-minute track. And in all honesty, she was “America’s nightmare”: educated and Black—a notion W.E.B. Du Bois describes in The Souls of Black Folk as what’s considered to be the “most dangerous kind” of folk in the Southern parts of America. 

The American government in fact feared Shakur and her impact so much that they placed her on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. But Cuba, seeing her as a symbol of resistance and defiance beyond American reach, had no interest in returning her — allowing Shakur to live, influence, and ultimately die as she had sought: free.

In 1992, West Coast rapper Paris dropped “Assata’s Song.” While the lyrics never call “Assata” out by name, its title says it all and its message is clear: respect and protect Black women. A myriad of songs continued to recognize Shakur’s influence, including Common and CeeLo Green’s “A Song For Assata” in 2000, Saul Williams’ “Black Stacey” in 2004, and Murs & 9th Wonder’s 2012 cut, “Tale of Two Cities,” which expressed hope for “Obama free Assata” because we’re all “just doing what we gotta.”

Killer Mike is one of the more recent artists to reference Shakur, highlighting her strength — both physically and emotionally — in his 2023 single, “Down By Law.” He talks about his “chick,” and how “she got the face of a model” and “the heart of Assata.” And Shakur’s heart ran deep — for herself and her people.

Shakur didn’t just have stamina, she had strength—a strength people will continue to draw from even as government entities try to control her in death. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan have declared that they will "vigorously oppose" any attempt to repatriate her remains, meaning they will block any effort made to return Shakur to her native country and rightful descendants. And in a time where Black America is once again pushing through another tumultuous period, Malkia Amala Cyril — an early leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, “Black Panther cub,” and supporter of Assata Shakur’s ideologies—  wrote a Medium article in 2020, referencing Shakur, saying, "The world in this era needs the kind of courage and radical love she practiced if we are going to survive it."

Hip-hop calls her a hero and the government still refers to her as a fugitive, but as 2Pac stated, Shakur will always be “America’s nightmare,” and by nature, nightmares never die.