Assata Shakur - Joanne Chesimard - died in Cuba. What will her enduring legacy be? | Opinion

"She was known by two names that convey two very different identities. One depicted her as a revolutionary heroine, an innocent target of police repression. The other was the name of a merciless gun-toting cop killer who cleverly escaped justice. This is the legacy of Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur. It is also the heart of the continuing mystery about her."

"Joanne Deborah Byron Chesimard is the legal name of the convicted killer of a New Jersey state trooper. Assata Olugbala Shakur was the alias of the leftist revolutionary who escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979 and found political asylum five years later in Cuba. Her protected status under the Castro regime was viewed as a long-standing obstacle to full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba."

"In these fractious political times, we often default to the term "culture wars" to describe many of the political differences that ripple across the nation. Whether it's abortion, gay marriage, immigration, school prayer, library censorship, gender identity or racial quotas, America has been immersed for much of the 21st century in a seemingly endless series of divisive political battles over what its people should embrace as accepted beliefs and law."

Joanne Deborah Byron Chesimard, also known as Assata Olugbala Shakur, embodied two conflicting identities: a revolutionary leftist and a convicted killer. She was convicted in the killing of a New Jersey state trooper and escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979. She secured political asylum in Cuba five years later, and her protected status under the Castro regime complicated U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations. Cuban authorities reported her death on Sept. 25 at age 78, citing "health conditions and advanced age." Her life reflects polarizing political conflicts rooted in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.

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