Source: Family Of Dr. Mutulu Shakur / Family Of Dr. Mutulu Shakur
Dr. Mutulu Shakur, a former central figure in the Black Liberation Army, was released from prison after serving 36 years behind bars. Dr. Shakur, who was the stepfather to Tupac “2Pac” Shakur, is suffering from bone marrow cancer and has just months to live according to reports.
As first reported by The Intercept, Mutulu Shakur, 72, was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in advanced stages and was given six months to live back in May. Having surpassed the given timeline, the U.S. Parole Commission granted Shakur the opportunity to live out his final days in freedom.
Shakur was imprisoned along with other Black liberation cohorts in connection to a 1981 robbery of a Brink’s armored truck which left a guard and two police officers dead. Shakur never denied his involvement in the matter and reformed himself in prison while leaning on some of the Black nationalist teachings he learned from being a member of the Republic of New Afrika. Shakur was also involved in the prison escape of Black nationalist leader, Assata Shakur.
NewsOne spoke with celebrated activist and author asha bandele, who offered a fuller portrait of Mutulu Shakur than previously known to the wider public.
From NewsOne:
“There are few men who have done more to negotiate peace and save lives from behind the walls of the most violent prisons in the United States than Mutulu Shakur,” bandele told NewsOne Thursday evening. “Since he was 16 years old, Dr. Shakur has dedicated his life to serving the least of these—people who were poor, people who were Black. People who were addicted to drugs. People who were unnamed in life and would have been unnamed in death were it not for his tireless, revolutionary efforts. My profound gratitude to his comrades, like Sekou Odinga, activists like Monifa Bandele, and Mutulu’s beautiful children, Sekiywa, Mopreme, Nzingha, Chinua, and Ayize here on earth; and his child Tupac Amaru, who is an ancestor. Let the reckoning and healing begin. Free ’em all.”
—
Photo: Getty
