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    Assata: An Autobiography
    Unavailable
    Assata: An Autobiography
    Unavailable
    Assata: An Autobiography
    Ebook425 pages8 hours

    Assata: An Autobiography

    By Assata Shakur and Angela Davis

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    'Deftly written...a spellbinding tale.'
    The New York Times

    In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.

    Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white state trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign to criminalize and suppress black nationalist organizations.

    This intensely personal and political autobiography reveals a sensitive and gifted woman. With wit and candour Assata recounts the formative experiences that led her to embrace a life of activism. With pained awareness she portrays the strengths, weaknesses and eventual demise of black and white revolutionary groups at the hands of the state. A major contribution to the history of black liberation, destined to take its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZed Books
    Release dateFeb 15, 2016
    ISBN9781783606818
    Unavailable
    Assata: An Autobiography

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    Reviews for Assata

    4.5/5

    160 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A riveting account of a prominent black activist in 1970s USA, on her upbringing, her struggles with the system at large, and her endless and senseless incarceration.
    • 4/5
      great book if you are interested in the subject!
    • 5/5
      One of the best books I've ever read. Definitely the best autobiography/memoir I've read.Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Front, was accused of being involved in the killing of a New Jersey police. The chapter's alternate between a moment in her childhood and her time being in prison.Intense book!! Definitely gets you pissed off at the U.S. government and racist bullshit they pull.Recommended to everyone!
    • 5/5
      This book literally changed my life. It inspired me to become an activist. We often judge before hearing the whole story. This autobiography sheds light on the accused story. HANDS OFF ASSATA!!!
    • 4/5
      I saw this on Michelle's goodreads bookshelf, which reminded me I read it in the late 80s. I really liked it, and remember being moved by her story, noting her considerable ability to write. Her life story and experiences as a member of the Black Panther Party are presented compellingly. (She was considered by the law enforcement to be the "soul" of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s.) I have friends who have met her in Cuba, where she has lived in exile, since escaping from prison.
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite book. I really love how in the book it goes through Assata's life, in a realistic way to make you really feel like you were there. I also like how the book contains a lot of poems in it. Basically the best book ever.
    • 5/5
      Insightfully written and made me feel like I knew Assata
    • 5/5
      best biography I've read. It's so incredibly powerful and dignified!
    • 5/5
      This book tells some horrific and painful injustices and miscarriage of justice and yet it is written in a fluid and accessible style that makes you want to just keep reading. The infusion of poetry throughout the book makes the otherwise depressing story uplifting. The few times the author sees the outside world and notices the smell of the air the colors and sounds really makes the reader internalize the stark contrast between life in prison and life outside.this is an important history of America that must be told and exposed.
    • 5/5
      I learned sooooo much reading this and reading about a young woman learning to live her Blackness so much that she sacrificed everything, truly inspiring! There are names and words in here that I never would have learned in school. I can’t wait to give this book to literally anyone who asks what I’m reading or what I’ve read.
    • 5/5
      Great read on her life, the black liberation movement and a voice for civil rights. I highly recommend.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Fascinating raw and insightful autobio, worthy of being up there with that of Malcolm X. Weaving together stories of her childhood, arrest, court cases, and how she developed her political consciousness with her incisive and wide-ranging thoughts on the US "justice" system, police, COINTELPRO, the Black Panthers, education, family, Black Power, international anti-colonial struggles, and women. Some of the things she went through are horrifying. She has a powerful way with words and there are poems interspersed with the chapters. The prologues (in the 2014 edition) provide some context for the situation in which she was writing, but as this is written from Assata's own perspective there are some assumptions made about prior knowledge (e.g. who Huey Newton is). However, this book would make a great starting point for further reading as it's written in a coloquial easy to understand style.The money and manpower the US government put behind trying to humiliate, demoralize, and kill Assata Shakur is only testament to the righteousness of her ideas and actions.
    • 3/5
      This book is all about racism, and often it’s shocking. But this story of the government persecution of a Black Panther woman is also a book about endurance and strength. It blows my mind that Shakur survived. The book is honest, informative, historically relevant, occasionally polemic but never so much that it becomes boring.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I heard a song written about this woman and ran to get the autobiography. it didn't disappoint. it reads like a novel but it is spiritually fulfilling.Assata's story made me feel as though I could do more in my community and that I was not helpless. Great read. I recommend this book for any and all.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Assata allows the reader into her life, a life of hardship, peril, and struggle. Assata takes the reader from when she was wrongfully accused, to her time in prison, through her pregnancy, and brings the reader to when she left the country due to persecution. I was surprised to discover the story of Assata Shakur, as I was not aware she even existed until I began reading this book. Like so many heroes of the civil rights movement, Assata Shakur deserves to have her story told to a wider audience, and to have more people know what she did and how she struggled for freedom. I would use this work as an addition to a civil rights unit in my class, and look forward to exposing my students to Shakur's story.

      1 person found this helpful