* 1947 – Assata Shakur, American activist and criminal

** Assata Shakur ( née Joanne Chesimard ), a former member of Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, escapes from a New York prison to Cuba, where she remains under political asylum.

Assata Olugbala Shakur ( born July 16, 1947, as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard ) is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party ( BPP ) and Black Liberation Army ( BLA ).

That same year she changed her name to Assata Shakur and joined the Black Liberation Army ( BLA ), " a politico-military organization, whose primary objective ( was ) to fight for the independence and self-determination of Afrikan people in the United States.

Specifically, documentary evidence suggests that Shakur was targeted by an investigation named CHESROB, which " attempted to hook former New York Panther Joanne Chesimard ( Assata Shakur ) to virtually every bank robbery or violent crime involving a black woman on the East Coast ".

On May 2, 1973, at about 12: 45 a. m., Assata Shakur, along with Zayd Malik Shakur ( born James F. Costan ) and Sundiata Acoli ( born Clark Squire ), was stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick by State Trooper James Harper, backed up by Trooper Werner Foerster in a second patrol vehicle ( Car 820 ), for driving with a broken tail light.

Recordings of Trooper Harper calling the dispatcher were played at the trials of both Acoli and Assata Shakur.

" The stop occurred south of what was then the Turnpike Authority administration building at exit 9, the headquarters of Troop D. Zayd Shakur was driving the two-door vehicle, Assata Shakur was seated in the right front seat, and Acoli was in the right rear seat.

However, in the ensuing shootout, Trooper Foerster was shot twice in the head with his own gun and killed, Zayd Shakur was killed, and Assata Shakur and Trooper Harper were wounded.

At this point, Assata Shakur and Acoli were ordered to put their hands on their laps and not to move ; Harper said that Assata Shakur then reached down to the right of her right leg, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the shoulder, after which he retreated to behind his vehicle.

Questioned by prosecutor C. Judson Hamlin, Harper said he saw Foerster shot just as Assata Shakur was felled by bullets from Harper's gun.

Acoli then drove the car ( a white Pontiac LeMans with Vermont license plates )— which contained Assata Shakur, who was wounded, and Zayd Shakur, who was dead or dying — down the road at milepost 78 across from Service Area 8-N ( the Joyce Kilmer Service Area ), where Assata Shakur was apprehended.

According to Palentchar, Assata Shakur then walked towards him from away with her bloody arms raised in surrender.

" An individual's name change often coincides with a religious conversion ( Muhammad Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay and Louis Farrakhan changed his from Louis Eugene Walcott, for example ) or involvement with the black nationalist movement ( e. g., Amiri Baraka and Assata Shakur ).

East Brunswick was also the site of the gunfight at Turnpike Exit 9 shortly after midnight on May 2, 1973, in which a car being driven by Zayd Malik Shakur ( born James F. Costan ), with Assata Shakur ( formerly JoAnne Chesimard ) and Sundiata Acoli ( born Clark Squire ) as passengers, was stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike State Trooper James Harper, backed up by Trooper Werner Foerster in a second patrol vehicle.

After Zayd Shakur was asked to step out of the car to address a discrepancy in his identification, a shootout ensued in which Trooper Foerster was shot twice in the head with his own gun and killed, Zayd Shakur was killed, and both Assata Shakur and Trooper Harper were wounded.

Kunstler joined the defense staff of Assata Shakur in 1977, charged in New Jersey with a variety of felonies in connection with a 1973 shootout with New Jersey State Troopers.

* Clark Edward Squire ( aka Sundiata Acoli ), convicted along with Assata Shakur of the murder of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.

* Jeral Wayne Williams ( aka Mutulu Shakur ), charged in part with conspiracy in 1979 BLA prison break of Chesimard ( Assata Shakur ), FBI's top ten Fugitive # 380.

In 1979, Joanne Chesimard also known as Assata Shakur, who had been convicted of killing a policeman, and a leading member of the Black Liberation Army ( BLA ), escaped from a New Jersey prison with help from a number of associates outside.

Assata Shakur was found guilty of the murder of both Foerster and her companion Zayd Shakur, but escaped prison in 1979 and eventually fled to Cuba and received political asylum.

At the time of the shootout, Assata Shakur was a member of the Black Liberation Army ( BLA ) and no longer a member of the Black Panther Party.

According to a New Jersey Police spokesperson, Assata Shakur was on her way to a " new hideout in Philadelphia " and " heading ultimately for Washington " and a book in the vehicle contained a list of potential BLA targets.

Assata Shakur testified that she was on her way to Baltimore for a job as a bar waitress.

Assata Shakur was interrogated and arraigned from her hospital bed, and her medical care during this period is often alleged to have been " substandard ".

Assata Shakur was transferred from Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick to Roosevelt Hospital in Edison after her lawyers obtained a court order from Judge John Bachman, and then transferred to Middlesex County Workhouse a few weeks later.

The JTTF would later serve as the " coordinating body in the search for Assata and the renewed campaign to smash the BLA ", after her escape from prison.

Executive produced by Questlove and featuring significant contributions by J Dilla, ( who helmed many tracks except – " Cold Blooded ", " Geto Heaven Part II ", " A Song For Assata ", " Pop's Rap Part 3 ... All My Children " & the DJ Premier-produced track " The 6th Sense "), Like Water for Chocolate transpired to be a considerable commercial breakthrough for Common, earning the rapper his first gold record, and greatly expanding his fanbase among critics and listeners alike.

It can be broken down "' -- Assata Shakur

* In 1979 three members walked into the visitor ’ s center at the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women near Clinton, took two guards hostage, and freed Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army.

Brown ( 1915 – 2009 ), attorney whose clients included Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur, boxer Rubin " Hurricane " Carter and " Dr. X " physician Mario Jascalevich.

Marrow's hip hop albums helped shape the gangsta rap style, with music journalist tracing works of artists such as Tupac Shakur, Notorious B. I. G., Eminem and N. W. A to " 6 in the Mornin '".

Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents — charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping — resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals.

Shakur was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, on July 16, 1947, where she lived for three years with her parents and grandparents, Lula and Frank Hill.

Shakur was arrested for the first time in 1967 with 100 other BMCC students, on charges of trespassing.

On April 6, 1971, Shakur was shot in the stomach during a struggle with a guest at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and was arrested on a string of charges.

Following an August 23, 1971, bank robbery in Queens, Shakur was sought for questioning, and a photograph of a woman ( who was later alleged to be Shakur ) with thick rimmed black glasses, a high hairdo pulled tightly over her head, and a steadily pointed gun became ubiquitous in banks and full page print ads paid for by the New York Clearing House Association.

Shakur was alleged to have been directly involved with the Foster and Laurie murders, and involved with the Piagentini and Jones murders.

As of February 17, 1972, when Shakur was identified as one of four BLA members on a short trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Shakur was wanted for questioning ( along with Robert Vickers, Twyman Meyers, Samuel Cooper, and Paul Stewart ) in relation to police killings, a Queens bank robbery, and the grenade attack.

After her capture, however, Shakur was not charged with any of the crimes that had made her the subject of the manhunt.

Shakur and others claim that she was targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO as a result of her involvement with these organizations.

It is at this point, with the questioning of Zayd Shakur, that the accounts of the confrontation begin to differ ( see the witnesses section below ).