FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hands Off Assata Campaign
Phone: 866.244.4708
Email: hoacampaign@yahoo.com
Hands Off Assata Campaign Launches National Initiative to Recognize 60th Birthday of Activist/Writer/Artist Assata Shakur
New York City. NY .. On November 2, 2006 notable public figures such as Angela Davis, Susan Taylor of Essence Magazine, rapper/actor Mos Def, Khephra Burns, Charles Mingus, III, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the National Center for Human Rights Education, National Conference of Black Lawyers, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Black United Movement and many more will stand together to launch an international campaign calling forth a pardon for Assata Shakur. Assata Shakur, mother, grandmother, author, activist, and artist will meet her 60th birthday in political exile with a $1 million bounty issued by the U.S. government to capture her from Cuba. In recognition of her birthday, in recognition of her right to live, supporters of the Hands Off Assata Campaign are calling on the state of New Jersey and the US Department of Justice to rescind the illegitimate $1 million bounty, remove her name from the domestic terrorist list, and ultimately issue Ms. Shakur a rightful, long overdue pardon.
As an activist with the Black Liberation Movement, Assata Shakur was targeted by the FBI..s COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) and charged six times in bogus criminal cases. Each time she was rightfully acquitted or the charge was dismissed. The barrage of investigations and indictments did not stop, but culminated in an ill-fated shoot-out on May 2, 1973 on the New Jersey turnpike. Though Assata sustained gunshot wounds indicative of surrender and no gunshot residue was found on her hands, she, along with fellow Movement member Sundiata Acoli, were charged with ..aiding and abetting.. the murder of both Zayd Shakur, her dear companion, and a state trooper. Assata was convicted in a questionable trial and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. Ever-changing testimonies, disregarded medical evidence supporting Assata..s innocence, and one-sided media coverage made the trial a mockery of justice. Assata Shakur managed to escape her unjust sentencing in 1979 and was granted political asylum in Cuba in 1986.
And last year, on May 2, 2005 the United States government and state of New Jersey increased a bounty to capture Assata Shakur to an outrageous $1 million, also labeling her a domestic terrorist. Revered and supported by legislators, academics, writers, artists, attorneys, and communities worldwide, Assata Shakur is known and celebrated as compassionate, revolutionary, mothering, intellectual, creative.. but absolutely no terrorist.
Launching in New York on November 2, 2006, the yearlong ..Happy Birthday Assata Campaign.. will kickoff with a card signing event at SEIU 1199 hall, 310 West 43rd Street, and will feature a statement from notable writer and editor, Susan Taylor, rapper/actor Mos Def, Sonia Sanchez, and a screening of Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando..s ..Eyes of the Rainbow.. about Ms. Shakur..s life in Cuba. Campaign events will also take place in Bahia, Brazil; Atlanta; San Francisco; Chicago; Detroit; Boston; and Philadelphia and build up for Ms. Shakur..s 60th birthday celebration on July 16, 2007.
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Happy Birthday Assata Campaign Launch Pics!!!
