Assata Shakur is a revolutionary African-American woman who believed in the uplifting of the black race during the sixties and seventies. She is an awesome and inspiring symbol of overcoming a corrupt society’s limitations and racial strongholds. In 1971, Assata Shakur was accused of robbing a bank in Queens (Shakur XIX). This was just the beginning of a long list of accusations and arraignments that she would be experiencing. Assata Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party, an organization that was dedicated to the uplifting of the black race ‘by any means necessary’ (BlackPast). During the height of the Black Panther Party, the government began targeting the group feeling that it posed a national threat to the country. The unification of a militant black army caused government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation to develop tactics to destroy the power and institution of the Black Panther Party. Shakur was also an affiliate with the Black Liberation Army (Shakur 52).
It took the United States court system seven times to finally convict Assata Shakur, and even after being finally convicted, the notion was under false information and misrepresentation. She was accused of multiple bank robberies that took place between 1971 and 1972 and the murder of a drug dealer in 1973(Shakur XIX). While most of the trials were dismissed, one trial did end with the conviction of Assata. The action that caused her conviction was the accusation of murdering a New Jersey State Trooper. Whether people believe Assata Shakur murdered a state trooper in 1973, the facts prove that Assata could not have possibly murdered a man in the condition that she was (Puryear).
While travelling down the New Jersey turnpike accompanied with Z...
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... be more political gain in the capture of Assata Shakur than expected.
Works Cited
United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Definitions of Terrorism in the U.S. Code. Web
United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. New Most Wanted Terrorist. 2013.Web
Cornell University Law School. Legal Information Institute. 18 U.S. Code § 751-Prisoners in custody of instiution or officer. Web.
BlackPast.org. (1964)Malcolm X’s Speech at the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity.Web.
Puryear, Eugene. Liberation. Assata Shakur: Understanding the politics behind the FBI’snew attack.2013. Web.
Afrocubaweb. Assata Shakur. Web
Glick, Brian. War at Home. Cointelpro in the 60s. Web.
Savali, Kirsten West. NewsOne. Angela Davis: FBI Targeting Assata Shakur ‘Reflects Very Logic Of Terrorism’. 2013. Web.
Shakur, Assata. Assata: An Autobiography.1987. Print
Davis, Jayna. The Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing. Nashville: WND, 2004. Print.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to social justice and equality. She devoted her tremendous energies to building the foundations of African-American progress in business, politics, and law. Wells-Barnett was a key participant in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She spoke eloquently in support of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The legacies of these organizations have been tremendous and her contribution to each was timely and indespensible. But no cause challenged the courage and integrity of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as much as her battle against mob violence and the terror of lynching at the end of the 19th century.
This historical study will compare and contrast the depiction of the “War on Terror” in a pro-government and anti-government plot structures found in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) by Kathryn Bigelow and The Siege (1998) by Edward Zwick. The pro-government view of Zero Dark Thirty defines the use of CIA agents and military operatives to track down Osama Bin Laden in the 2000s. Bigelow appears to validate the use of torture and interrogation as a means in which to extract information in the hunt for Bin Laden. In contrast this depiction of terrorism, Zwick’s film The Siege exposes the damage that torture, kidnapping, and
attempted murder of policemen on January 23, 1973. On May 2, 1973, Assata Shakur and two
Jeffrey David Simon, The Terrorist Trap: America's Experience with Terrorism, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001), 188-89.
...www.noi.org/MLFspeaks 4. Anti-Defamation League. Press release, "Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in Their Own Words One Year After the Million Man March." October, 1996 5. The movie Get on the Bus by Spike Lee/40 Acres and a Mule Productions also provided insight.
Patty Hearst was a normal 19 year old girl, living in an apartment with her fiance and attending university in Berkeley, California, until one day her life, and the lives of everyone around her changed forever. On the evening of February 4, 1974, some members of the left-wing radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army barged into Hearst’s home armed with guns, and beat up her fiance before kidnapping Hearst and bringing her to their house where she was kept blindfolded in a closet for 59 days. While locked in the closet, Patty Hearst was verbally and sexually abused and she was denied the use of even a toilet or toothbrush if she didn’t tell them that she agreed with the group’s ideas and beliefs. It is believed that while being locked in the closet like this, Patty was being brainwashed by the SLA and that she may have even developed Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which a person who was kidnapped starts to empathise with their captor, and even starts defending them. This is how the Symbionese Liberation Army convinced Patty Hearst to join their group. They released an audio tape to the public in which Patty Hearst said she was changing her name to Tania and that she had decided to join the SLA. She then helped the SLA rob a bank and steal an ammunition belt from a sports store. After this, she started travelling around the country with two members of the SLA named John and Emily Harris, to try avoid being captured by the police. During this time, the police found a house where some members of the SLA were hiding out. Attempts to make the SLA members surrender ended up in a massive gunfight, ultimately ending up in the deaths of 6 SLA members. The FBI eventually found and arrested Patty Hearst on September 18, 1975. T...
Angela Yvonne Davis’ interest in social justice began during her youth when she was exposed firsthand to the hateful and violent consequences of racism. She was born on ...
The 1960’s was an era of constant turmoil as a result of the fight for equal rights for all races, a fight led by the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. Even before they were both murdered, the mostly peaceful Civil Rights movement was gaining traction, but still actually gaining equal rights at a painfully slow pace. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party emerged as a revolutionary group who aimed to change not only the unfair government but the slow pace at which the Civil Rights Movement was progressing. In the late 1960’s and the 1970’s, The Black Panther’s consistently stood up for their beliefs on Civil Rights and were successful in changing it into
Crosley, Hillary. “How Data Took Down NYC’s Stop and Frisk” The Hour (2013) 1-3. Print.
When she was falsely accused in her case, the FBI thought she was the one who started it all. The FBI didn’t look at all of the evidence that was found at the crime or what she had said. They falsely accused her of the crime because they thought she was the one that robbed the bank and did extortion. There were gaps in her statement, and she couldn’t think straight. She was saying random words because she was so terrified of what happened to her. The SLA brainwashed her, and she didn’t know anything after they were done with her. She didn’t even know what day it was, so she does not know what happened in her case.
• AW calls herself “a womanist “, her term for a black feminist. She is one of the female Afro-American writers founding the concept “New Black Renaissance” .
Imagine being objectified not being seen like a human. How would you feel? Sad? Angry? Depressed? Devastated? In “Assata An Autobiography” by Assata Shakur that is what happened to her and other people whom were not white. Being arrested and shot by troopers with no evidence simply by assumptions is what happened to Assata Shakur. Since she and Zayd were black they were mistreated and taken into custody. During the 70’s social justice rarely existed, the whites had power over any other ethnic group. All thought the autobiography social justice is what Shakur empathizes and how she did not obtain it with many other blacks. That caused her to become part of The Black Panther Party. She wanted a change to happen for the better not only for her and her people but for other facing the same issue of inequality. Social justice being a touchy topic in Assata Shakur’s life has made more people
She claimed self defense stating in the documentary duing a court order, “first female serial killer is not what I am and I am not even near it and my confessions prove it” (CITE). From the learning theory comes a term deemed “Neutralization”. Neutralization is an attempt by the offender to buffer the severity of their actions. It’s a learned behavior and thus is categorized under the learning theory which has been adopted via observation of their surroundings. This neutralization is an attempt to redistribute blame away from the offender. While all claims of rape Aileen mentioned are valid ( we can never know for sure because her victims are dead) a pattern of blame starts to form through her dialogue. According to the FBI, “The term ‘serial killings’ means a series of three or more killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors.” (CITE). By definition of the word, Aileen was in fact a serial killer. However, while in the end admitting to the crimes, Aileen held strong to the idea that she was in fact not a serial killer, “Lee Wuornos insists she is not a serial killer and did not stalk her victims or plan her crimes” (DOCUMENTARY CITE). We see Aileen used neutralization in 2 main forms,