Assata Shakur, US Black liberation activist exiled in Cuba, dies at 78 | Black Lives Matter News

The revolutionary spent decades in exile after escaping from a US jail in 1979, where she was held for killing a police officer.

Assata Shakur, a Black American liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba, has died at the age of 78 after decades in exile, her family and Cuban officials said.

Shakur, who was born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, died on Thursday “due to health conditions and advanced age”, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday.