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Reviving Rap: the Imprisonment of Assata Shakur and Its Effect on Modern Rap Music

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Reviving Rap: the Imprisonment of Assata Shakur and Its Effect on Modern Rap Music Reviving Rap: The Imprisonment of Assata Shakur and its Effect on Modern Rap Music Rebecca Burgan History Department Honors Thesis December 6, 2011 2 In the spirit of Assata Shakur. We make this movement towards freedom For all those who have been oppressed, and all those in the struggle.1 1 Thomas Decarlo Burton, A Song for Assata, CD-ROM, performed by Common, (2000; MCA Records). 3 Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1 – Assata Shakur i. Wanted ii. Trial and Imprisonment iii. Escape Chapter 2 – Reviving Rap i. The Evolution of Rap ii. Spreading Assata’s Story iii. Assata’s Views on Rap iv. Rapping for the Cause Chapter 3 – Continuing Struggle i. Prison Reform ii. Women in the Struggle Conclusion 4 Introduction “White House Defends ‘Cop Killer’ Rapper.”2 “Obama’s Poetry Event Draws Fire Over a Rapper Named Common.”3 “NJ State Police ‘Outraged’ Over Rapper Invite to White House.”4 In May 2011, President Barrack Obama hosted rapper, Common, at the White House as a performer in Michelle Obama’s White House Music Series. As soon as the media got word that this invitation had been extended, the Obamas were under fire for supporting the sympathizer of a cop killer. Major Gerard Lewis, spokesman for the New Jersey State Police, commented, “We cannot dictate who is invited to the White House, but we will always view Joanne Chesimard as a fugitive who killed one of our own. We will continue our pursuit of her until she is brought to justice.”5 Joanne Chesimard, the cop killer of whom Common wrote a rap in support, is a former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member also known as Assata Shakur. Assata Shakur, born JoAnne Byron on July 16, 1947, was an avid member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army throughout the 1960’s. In 1973, at age 26, she was convicted in the murder of two people in New Jersey, one of whom was a police officer. She contends, however, that she was convicted despite a lack of evidence against her in her trial, and that she was essentially held as a political prisoner as a result of her involvement with the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.6 It is widely believed by black liberationists that throughout Shakur’s trials and the seven years she spent in prison before she escaped, she was subject to unfair treatment as a result of her race and affiliation with “the greatest threat to the 2 “White House Defends ‘Cop Killer’ Rapper,” Fox Nation, May 11, 2011, http://nation.foxnews.com/michelle- obama-poetry-event-controversy/2011/05/11/wh-defends-cop-killer-rapper-calls-him-socially-c. 3 David Jackson, “Obama’s Poetry Event Draws Fire Over a Rapper Named Common,” USA Today, May 11, 2011, http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/05/obamas-poetry-event-draws-fire-over-a-rapper- named-common/1. 4 Brian Thompson and Marcus Riley, “NJ State Police ‘Outraged’ Over Rapper Invite to White House,” NBC New York, May 12, 2011, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NJ-State-Police-Outraged-Over-Rapper-Invited-to- White-House-121596869.html. 5 Ibid. 6 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 252. 5 internal security of the country.”7 Throughout her imprisonment and the years following, Shakur has made an effort to publicize the racism within the United States’ penal system and has had her story widely disseminated among young black audiences by rap artists who have taken up her cause. The goal of this thesis is to counter the arguments that criminality detracted from the movement and examine how Shakur’s time in prison rallied positive support from rap artists who have chosen to continue the fight for black liberation through their music. Previous scholars who have studied Shakur have focused largely on her role as a woman within the Black Panther Party, as well as the ways in which she utilized her autobiography to gain support for the Party. There are also a variety of scholars who have studied how the criminality of Black Panthers negatively influenced the movement. The thesis will not only explore the autobiographical works that Assata has written, but also rap lyrics that have been dedicated to her, to explore how the support Shakur has gained from rap artists helped her influence the social movements in which she was involved. In today’s popular culture it is a widely-held belief that rap and hip-hop artists have strayed from the origins of their music by promoting themes such as sex, partying, and the degradation of women. By examining how rap artists have helped Shakur impact the movements in which she was involved, this thesis demonstrates how this genre of music is still used by many artists for its original purpose, which was to lyrically combat the constant oppression that blacks face. I first learned Shakur’s story when I read Assata: An Autobiography for an English class. I was instantly intrigued by her story and began doing research in online archives. I also discovered many popular websites like HandsoffAssata.org and AssataShakurSpeaks.org that post messages and interviews from Shakur, as well as other Black Panther Party members and 7 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: Profiled and On the Run,” The New Crisis 107 (December 2000): 23. 6 political prisoners who support her. The websites also offer discussion boards on which anyone can post comments expressing their hope that Shakur will gain her freedom. It was on these websites that I first discovered the large following of rap artists that Shakur has acquired, and I became very interested in their connection to her story. I attained most of the information I needed for this thesis online, in the libraries at the University of Florida, and over interlibrary loan. Later, however, I discovered The Freedom Archives in San Francisco and the Huey P. Newton Archives, which are housed in Special Collections at Stanford University, and knew that I needed to take a trip to California. The Freedom Archives contain video and audio clips of interviews with Shakur ranging from her time in prison to special reports from Cuba. In these interviews, Shakur comments on her repression by COINTELPRO, her trial, her time in prison, and her life in Cuba. There are also recordings of Shakur reading her poems; television programs dedicated to Shakur from as far back at 1977, the year she was convicted; and interviews with other political prisoners, such as Mumia Abu Jamal, regarding their feelings about Shakur’s trial and imprisonment. The archives also house audio recordings of major events within the BPP, such as the first correspondences from Weather Underground and readings from the funerals of George and Jonathan Jackson. Most important for my research are the original recordings of poetry and rap for Black August, which is a hip-hop project founded to promote human rights and honor fallen Freedom Fighters. The archive at Stanford, which is in close proximity to the Freedom Archives, was indispensable to my research because it is the largest collection of Black Panther Party materials in the nation, and allowed me to better understand the organizational ties for which Shakur was targeted. The archive contains BPP chapter minutes, Party correspondences, advertising pamphlets, transcripts of phone calls to the central headquarters, community program 7 curriculums, and financial records. By having access to these archives, I was able to gain a critical understanding of the culture surrounding Shakur’s activism and imprisonment. I am personally unable to make a decision for or against the innocence of Assata Shakur. While I believe in her cause and what she stands for, I do not have enough information to make an informed judgment regarding whether she actually committed the murders. I have, however, collected enough evidence to confidently assert that Assata Shakur was wrongfully imprisoned due to a lack of evidence presented during her trial. I also believe that the story of Shakur’s imprisonment represents the overriding racism that still perpetrates American society today. 8 Chapter 1 Assata Shakur My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th Century escaped slave.8 Shakur was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, but she spent most of her time growing up in North Carolina with her grandparents.9 She experienced many acts of racism in the south but was always able to overcome them. Her mother taught her from an early age that most white business owners would rather allow a black person to enter their business than have them cause a scene as a result of being turned away.10 Therefore, Shakur was a frequent visitor of a local amusement park and movie theater that were white-only.11 She considers her youth as the time before she was enslaved, not because blacks were not oppressed at this time, but because she had not yet matured enough to realize that she was already facing discrimination. It was not until moving to New York as a young adult that Shakur first experienced the realities of racism. She argues that, as her symbolic slave owner, the United States subjected her to a process of discrimination in New York that caused anger and hatred to build up within her.12 Eventually she felt she had no other channel to express her anger than through her family, and this resulted in her decision to run away from home at the age of thirteen.13 During her time living alone, Shakur witnessed the vast poverty and oppression of black people within the United States.
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