Assata Shakur: The Woman Who Chose Freedom

Celebrating Women's History Month with a badass a day.

There’s a story I keep coming back to, one that feels urgent, necessary, and alive. It’s the story of Assata Shakur—a woman who looked at a world that wanted her silent, invisible, and broken, and said, “No.”

Assata wasn’t born a revolutionary. She was born JoAnne Chesimard in 1947, in a country that didn’t value her life, her voice, or her freedom. But somewhere along the way, she decided she wouldn’t accept that. She joined the Black Panther Party, then the Black Liberation Army, not because she wanted to be a symbol, but because she believed in justice. She believed in freedom. And she was willing to fight for it.

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

Then came 1973, the year everything changed. Pulled over by New Jersey state troopers on the Turnpike, Assata found herself in a shootout that left one trooper dead and her own body ri…