Assata Shakur, Black Liberation Army Member, Dead At 78

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Assata Shakur , a revolutionary fighter for Black Liberation, has died, per Cuban news outlet Cubaminrex . She was 78.

On Thursday (September 25), Shakur died in Havana, Cuba, “due to health conditions and advanced age,” a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states.

Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947, in Queens, New York, joined Black nationalist movements, like the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, during the civil rights era. She garnered national attention in 1973 following a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that left State Trooper Werner Foerster and fellow BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur dead. Assata Shakur, who was wounded in the incident, was arrested and later convicted of Foerster’s murder. She consistently mai