Assata: An Autobiography

After Manhattan Community College, Shakur attended the City College of New York. She was married briefly to Louis Chesimard, a fellow Black radical activist, and she thought for a while that they had a “marriage made in heaven” (196). However, she realized that he wanted her to become a traditional wife, which was not what she wanted. They divorced on amicable terms.

To expand her knowledge of other political movements, Shakur visited the West Coast, where she encountered Indigenous people who were participating in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island—a political action in which Indigenous activists claimed the notorious prison island as Native land and held it for 19 months, from 1969 to 1971. As part of a first aid skills class, she joined the Native Americans who were protesting and learned more about their struggle. She also met the Brown Berets, a group of Chicano revolutionaries in the Bay Area. While she had some difficulties finding information about the Red Guard, the Asian American organizing group in the Bay Area, she stumbled upon them eventually while handing out fliers at a park.

Shakur also sought out the Black Panther chapter in the Bay. The Black Panthers welcomed her and wanted to know why she was not a member of the New York chapter, though she had volunteered for them from time to time.