Book Review: Assata, An Autobiography

This autobiography is a personal account of the Assata that many of us learn about through the eyes of others. Assata Shakur is masterful in her storytelling, making her wild journey as an activist and political prisoner one that is relatable yet awe inspiring. The book starts out when Assata was arrested after a highway chase and shootout with police that left police officers wounded and killed. She is badly injured herself and in and out of consciousness, shackled to a hospital bed with armed policemen guarding her hospital room. Although I have learned so much about Assata’s life through the way she impacted our movement through the decades, I could not have imagined the journey that she took to get there, she goes back in time to describe her upbringing and gives us an inside look at growing up black and poor in the United States, in the 50s and 60s. 

It took me some time to truly get into this book and sit with it. I think it has been hard for me to process reading about women in the movement due to my own struggles grappling with my experiences, both good and bad, when it comes to activism. But when I finally dug into this book it was one that kept me constantly turning the pages. It clarified so much about the trial that she endured but gave me so much background on who Assata is as a woman, a person, a human being angry about the conditions this white supremacist capitalist system has subjected us to. 

Assata shares how she decided to become pregnant, even while in bondage during her first trial. It is a sobering reminder of what reproductive justice is, and what generations of black people before us have had to grapple with in deciding to bring children into this world. It made me think of the beauty and the sheer strength that so many of us black women must exhibit when we choose to mother. Something that others typically judge us harshly for, but we move forward anyway and do the best we can to nurture the future of the black community. 

I recommend this book to all people who identify as activists, community organizers, or social justice advocates. I also recommend this book to all young black women and femmes who might have always felt they didn’t quite fit into this world as their true, whole selves. One thing about Assata she kept it real through and through in this text and that really shines through in her storytelling.