Speaker 1: Heyl. I'm Aaron Hanes. I'm the editor at large for
Speaker 1: The Nineteenth News, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender politics
Speaker 1: and policy. I'm also the host of a brand new
Speaker 1: weekly podcast from the Nineteenth News and Wonder Media Network
Speaker 1: called The Amendment. Each week, we're bringing you a conversation
Speaker 1: about gender politics and the unfinished work of American democracy.
Speaker 1: Our very first episode features my dear friend and Pulitzer
Speaker 1: Prize winning journalist Nicole Hanna Jones. It's out now, so
Speaker 1: please go listen and follow the show. On top of
Speaker 1: all of this, I'm your guest host for this month
Speaker 1: of Wamanica, this Black History Month, We're talking about revolutionaries,
Speaker 1: the black women who led struggles for liberation from violent governments,
Speaker 1: colonial rulers, and enslavers. These women had the courage to
Speaker 1: imagine radically different worlds, and they use their power to
Speaker 1: try and pull those worlds into view. Today, we're talking
Speaker 1: about a woman whose work as a civil rights activist
Speaker 1: made her a target. She was the first woman added
Speaker 1: to the FBI's most Wanted terrorist list, and she's refused
Speaker 1: to see herself as a criminal. She fought for black
Speaker 1: liberation and spoke out against the criminality of the US government.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Asada Shakur. Asida Shakur was born in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven. Her mother named her joe Anne Deborah Byron.
Speaker 1: Asada spent the first few years of her life living
Speaker 1: in Jamaica, New York. When she was three years old,
Speaker 1: she moved down south with her grandparents to Wilmington, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty. North Carolina was segregated by race. ASADA's
Speaker 1: grandparents made sure to raise her with a sense of
Speaker 1: personal dignity. Asada learned to hold her head up high,
Speaker 1: look white people in the eye, and speak up. They
Speaker 1: taught Asada that she was as good as anyone else.
Speaker 1: As a child, Asida loved to read and had a
Speaker 1: vivid imagination. When she wasn't daydreaming, she was working at
Speaker 1: her grandparents restaurant or collecting fees for the beach parking
Speaker 1: lot that her grandparents operated. Eventually, Asida returned to New York,
Speaker 1: where she started attending an integrated school. She was often
Speaker 1: the only black child in her elementary school classes. Some
Speaker 1: of her white teachers would treat her differently. They would
Speaker 1: talk down to her and discipline her specifically, even if
Speaker 1: the whole class was misbehaving. At the age of seventeen,
Speaker 1: Asida dropped out of high school and started working. This
Speaker 1: was the mid nineteen sixties. The news was filled with
Speaker 1: stories about the Vietnam War and uprisings in black neighborhoods
Speaker 1: across the country protesting government violence. Asada was reading that
Speaker 1: news and forming her own opinions. She started making friends
Speaker 1: with African students who studied at Columbia University. They taught
Speaker 1: her about the history of Vietnam's colonization and the views
Speaker 1: of communists. Eventually, Asada enrolled at the Borough of Manhattan
Speaker 1: Community College. She later went to the City College of
Speaker 1: New York. While in school, she got involved with the
Speaker 1: student group, the Golden Drums. She learned more about history,
Speaker 1: Black history, the history of capitalism and communism, and colonization.
Speaker 1: She cut her hair and grew an afro. She attended
Speaker 1: demonstrations and started wondering how she could plot a revolution.
Speaker 1: To learn more about what revolution meant, Asida went to California,
Speaker 1: where the Black Panther Party was founded. After meeting with
Speaker 1: revolutionary groups and exchanging ideas on the West Coast, she
Speaker 1: returned to New York. There she joined the Black Panther Party.
Speaker 1: She worked in their medical cadre, then their free breakfast program,
Speaker 1: but Asida had deep ideological disagreements with party leadership, and
Speaker 1: eventually she left the Panthers. Even after her departure, she
Speaker 1: was surveilled the government at the time was committed to
Speaker 1: eliminating the Panthers. In nineteen seventy one, Asada went underground.
Speaker 1: She joined the Black Liberation Army or BLA, a militant
Speaker 1: offshoot of the Black Panther Party. Asaida later described the
Speaker 1: BLA as a people's movement of resistance against oppression. That
Speaker 1: same year, she officially changed her name to Asada Olubala Shakur.
Speaker 1: Between nineteen seventy one and nineteen seventy three, Asada engaged
Speaker 1: in covert armed struggle as part of the BLA. During
Speaker 1: this time period, she faced charges for a series of crimes,
Speaker 1: including two bank robberies, kidnapping, and attempted murder of a policeman.
Speaker 1: About half those charges ended in acquittals, the other half
Speaker 1: were dismissed. On May second, nineteen seventy three, Asada was
Speaker 1: driving down the New Jersey Turnpike with Zaid Chiquur and
Speaker 1: Sundiata Akali. Their car allegedly had a faulty tail light
Speaker 1: and they were pulled over by state troopers. Accounts of
Speaker 1: what happened next very but we know that shots were
Speaker 1: fired and when the dust settled, zaide Chaquur and State
Speaker 1: Trooper Werner Forster were dead. Asada had been shot multiple times.
Speaker 1: ASADA's arm was temporarily paralyzed from her bullet wounds, her
Speaker 1: clavicle was broken, and one of her lungs had fluid
Speaker 1: in it. When she was taken to a hospital, she
Speaker 1: faced rampant abuse at the hands of the police while
Speaker 1: trying to recover. Eventually, she was incarcerated in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1: She gave birth while awaiting trial at Riker's Island in
Speaker 1: dire living conditions. In March nineteen seventy seven, Asada received
Speaker 1: her first and only convictions. She was found guilty of
Speaker 1: six counts of assault and the murder of Werner Forster,
Speaker 1: the New Jersey state trooper. The fairness of the trial
Speaker 1: was dubious. The jury was all white, and two jurors
Speaker 1: admitted their prejudice before the trial. During the trial, a
Speaker 1: neurologist testified that ASADA's arm was paralyzed immediately after being shot,
Speaker 1: meaning she couldn't have fired a gun. Asida later said, quote,
Speaker 1: it was obvious I didn't have one chance in a
Speaker 1: million of receiving any kind of justice. Asada was sentenced
Speaker 1: to life in prison plus thirty years. She was imprisoned
Speaker 1: with white supremacists, and she was held in two men's prisons.
Speaker 1: The United Nations later described ASADA's confinement as totally unbefitting
Speaker 1: any prisoner. She was afraid that she would be murdered
Speaker 1: in prison, so she planned her escape. In nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: Asada broke out of prison and went underground. She reappeared
Speaker 1: eight years later in Cuba. In nineteen eighty seven, she
Speaker 1: published Assada Shakur and Autobiography, which included an account of
Speaker 1: her early life and her time spent in prison, as
Speaker 1: well as our poetry. Many of the details we know
Speaker 1: about her life are thanks to these writings. The New
Speaker 1: Jersey State government kept trying to capture Asida Shakur after
Speaker 1: her disappearance. In nineteen ninety seven, Pope John Paul the
Speaker 1: Second was planning to visit Cuba, the New Jersey State
Speaker 1: police wrote a letter to the Pope asking him to
Speaker 1: help extradite Asada. Then Asada wrote her own letter to
Speaker 1: the Pope. It opened with the lines, my name is
Speaker 1: Asada Shakur and I in the twentieth century, escaped slave.
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, forty years after Trooper Forrester's death, the
Speaker 1: FBI put Asada on the most Wanted Terrorist list. Her
Speaker 1: bounty totaled two million dollars. She was the first woman
Speaker 1: to appear on the list. Asada has managed to evade
Speaker 1: the United States government for more than forty years. She's
Speaker 1: still alive today, and so was the revolutionary spirit that
Speaker 1: powered her. All month, We're talking about revolutionaries. For more information,
Speaker 1: you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to co creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for
Speaker 1: having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.