Assata Shakur constantly faced hard lessons about Blackness and liberation. Here are three that we must never forget, in her own words.
#1. Caring for each other is resistance: “Love is really the only thing we can possess, keep with us, and take with us. I don’t mean romantic love, but the kind of love that is real caring, that comes from the bottom of your heart.”
#2. Joy can still exist in the midst of struggle: “I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And I believe that everything that anybody ever thought up can be real. I believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth. And I believe that a lost ship, steered by tired, seasick sailors, can still be guided home to port.”
#3. Liberation is a collective experience, not a personal one: “The struggle is always between the oppressed and the oppressors. And the oppressed have to wage the struggle until they are free.”
Assata's teachings live through each of us, and together we can make the liberation she wanted for us all a reality. Assata taught me—us—means we learn from her life. See her life in her own words here.