Author

Martha Lino

Class Year

2014

Access Type

Vassar Community Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department or Program

Sociology Department

First Advisor

Diane Harriford

Abstract

Assata Shakur is a 65-year-old revolutionary. During the 1960s, Assata Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. However, on May 2, 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), placed Assata Shakur on the Most Wanted Terrorist List, with a $2 million dollar bounty for her capture and/or death. To examine Assata Shakur’s legacy and radicalization, I examine her autobiography thematically. I will consider her autobiography along the following themes: Shakur’s migratory subjectivity, organization, and symbolic insurgency. This thesis will situate Assata Shakur and her radicalism within the Black Radical Tradition and Black Feminist Thought in order to emphasize the humanist vision that has been at the core of Shakur’s political activism and identity. I conclude by demonstrating that Shakur’s radicalism is an embrace of community as a means to challenge a racist, imperialist, and capitalist society.

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