Review: Assata: An Autobiography

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books

Release Date:  November 1, 2001

Paperback: 320 pages

On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka Jo Anne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local state and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper.  Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover’s campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder.

This intensely personal and political autobiography bellies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the stare.  With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weakness, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at he hands of government officials.  The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place along side The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou.

Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison.  She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she now resides.