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.
Related to Assata
Related ebooks
Assata: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maroon the Implacable: The Collected Writings of Russell Maroon Shoatz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revolutionary Threads: Rastafari, Social Justice, and Cooperative Economics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darkwater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African American Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Higglers in Kingston: Women's Informal Work in Jamaica Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey: Or, Africa for the Africans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African Genius Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Negro Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grassroots Garveyism: The Universal Negro Improvement Association in the Rural South, 1920-1927 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tragedy of White Injustice and Other Meditations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod was African Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mis-Education of the Negro Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDie Nigger Die!: A Political Autobiography of Jamil Abdullah al-Amin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Black Book II: From Hajji Malik Al-Shabazz to Barack Obama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Psychic Hold of Slavery: Legacies in American Expressive Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFree the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Legacy of Walter Rodney in Guyana and the Caribbean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeeds of Revolution: A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs, Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Avenger in Atlantic Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrocentric Idea Revised Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Afeni Shakur: Evolution Of A Revolutionary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Souls of Black Folk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Restoring the Mind of Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Garvey and Garveyism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Lives, White Lives: Three Decades of Race Relations in America Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Education of a Coroner: Lessons in Investigating Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Eating Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Assata
160 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5great book if you are interested in the subject!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One 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!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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!!!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insightfully written and made me feel like I knew Assata
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5best biography I've read. It's so incredibly powerful and dignified!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great read on her life, the black liberation movement and a voice for civil rights. I highly recommend.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assata 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