Born with the name of JoAnne Deborah Byron Chesimard, Assata Shakur was an American Black Panther activist.

He grew up in New York and studied at the Manhattan Community College and CCNY, where he was involved in various struggles. Fugitive of New Jersey and the United States, was accused of the murder of fellow activist Zayd Shakur and New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster on. During the two and a half years after Assata was imprisoned, while being prosecuted simultaneously for six different causes (charges ranging from kidnapping to assault and bank robbery). He claims that he was beaten and tortured during his imprisonment in several federal and state prisons, and prominent activists say if any new terrorist laws against non-terrorist applied. Among the professional organizations and politically committed artists Shakur are supporting the National Conference of Black Lawyers and rapper Mos Def. Many leftist movements, anarchists, socialists and student support it through the "Hands Off Assata" [Hands Off Assata] campaign.

In 1984 he was granted political asylum in Cuba (where he currently resides), where he wrote Assata: An Autobiography. On May 2, 2005 his name was added to the FBI's Terrorist List, with a reward of one million dollars.