Assata Shakur, Political Activist Who Sought Asylum in Cuba, Dead at 78

Assata Shakur, a political activist who sought asylum in Cuba following her 1977 conviction in the killing of a state trooper, has died.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared a statement on Friday, Sept. 26, revealing that Shakur, whose legal name was Joanne Deborah Byron, had died in Havana one day earlier.

“On September 25, 2025, American citizen Joanne Deborah Byron, ‘Assata Shakur,’ died in Havana, Cuba, as a result of health problems and her advanced age,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Additional details weren’t immediately available.

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Though convicted in 1977 in the death of Werner Foerster, the larger circumstances of that conviction have been frequently questioned by activists in the years since. In 1979, Shakur, a prominent Black Liberation Army member, escaped from prison, ultimately securing political asylum in Cuba several years later.

Activist Angela Davis, per a Guardian piece by Bim Adewunmi, said Shakur was “not a threat” in a 2013 TV interview.

“She is innocent,” Davis said at the time, noting that people “are not aware of the extent to which [Shakur] was targeted by the FBI and the COINTEL program.”

For those unfamiliar, the FBI’s COINTELPRO projects, spanning from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, took aim at multiple political groups. The FBI itself, notably, lists COINTELPRO as having later been “rightfully criticized by Congress and the American people for abridging first amendment rights and for other reasons.”

In 2013, the FBI announced that Shakur had been added to its Most Wanted Terrorists List. The total reward offered by the agency and the State of New Jersey, combined, came to $2 million.

“I was tried for the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper by an all-white jury in a highly prejudiced county where something like 70 percent of those polled already believed I was guilty,” Assata said of her conviction in a 1992 interview, adding that she had also been “tried in the press for years.”

As 2Pac fans will note, Assata was described as both a “godmother” and “step-aunt” to the late All Eyez on Me rapper. Assata was once quoted as praising 2Pac as a “genius,” adding “I love his music.”

On his 2000 album Like Water for Chocolate, Common paid tribute to Assata Shakur on the CeeLo Green-featuring track “A Song for Assata,” heard below.

RIP.

Assata Shakur, Political Activist Who Sought Asylum in Cuba, Dead at 78

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