An Amerikan Family

December 1, 2022

Journalist Holley investigates the Black liberation movement in the United States during the last half-century through one of its most activist groups: the Shakur family. Readers will be familiar with author and thinker Assata Shakur, living for three decades in Cuban exile, and the late rapper Tupac. But the family--and its influence--is much more extensive. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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May 1, 2023
In this riveting group portrait, journalist Holley (Murder Ballads) chronicles the Black Panther movement from the 1960s to the present through the lives of the Shakur family. The Shakurs, a close-knit group of friends and relations who changed their surnames together in honor of Black nationalist Salahdeen Shakur, included Mutulu, an acupuncture trailblazer, and Salahdeen’s biological son Lumumba, cofounder of the Harlem Panthers. But it is the exploits of formidable Shakur women that stand out here. After Afeni, mother of rapper Tupac, was arrested in 1969 as one of the “Panther 21” charged with conspiracy to bomb various locations in New York City, she represented herself in court and managed to secure the group’s acquittal. Assata—a member of the breakaway Black Liberation Army, which rose to prominence after the 1973 death of Salahdeen’s other son Zayd in a shoot-out with police—engineered a bold prison break in 1979. Groomed to be a Black liberation leader, Tupac was ultimately more artist than revolutionary, according to Holley. Sweeping and sober, this is a vital chapter in the history of the struggle for racial justice.

Starred review from April 1, 2023
The history of a dynasty of Black resistance. "The legacy of the Shakur family exists all around us--in culture, activism, and our professional lives," writes journalist Holley. Best known is Tupac, murdered in 1996 at the age of 25, who brought a questioning complexity to his lyrics that has remained influential. His mother, Afeni, was an activist in the Black Panther Party, which was a tiny organization in New York until she joined in 1968 and became an engaged speaker and recruiter. Activist Bill Hampton called it "a service organization and a black liberation army," but J. Edgar Hoover discounted the service aspect and launched an extensive campaign against the Panthers involving informants and surveillance. Afeni was swept up in a charge of conspiracy and jailed until, pregnant with Tupac, she was acquitted in May 1971. She remained a committed activist, while others in the family and organization drifted when the Panthers began to break apart. Assata Shakur became an activist in the Black Liberation Army--though, Holley writes, she "was more of an enigma than a leader." Convicted of murder, she escaped from prison in 1979 and has lived ever since in Cuba. Mutulu Shakur, "a soldier in the New Afrikan Security Forces" who became a leader and holistic healer, married Afeni after Tupac was born. Later, he was implicated in a series of admittedly undisciplined armed robberies; he was released from prison in December 2022 after four decades, but even as he languished there, his acupuncture-based techniques for narcotics detoxification were widely employed. "What remains today of the Black liberation movement is not immediately evident," writes Holley, but much of it resides in social justice work, youth education, and food programs--and much of that owes to the Shakurs. Well written and richly detailed, this book is a strong contribution to the literature of Black militancy.

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Starred review from May 1, 2023
Journalist and creative nonfiction writer Holley explores the history of the Shakur family, activists and revolutionaries whose legacy stretched from the founding of the New York Chapter of the Black Panthers through the socially-conscious lyrics of the late rapper, Tupac Shakur. Holley's prose is captivating, as he describes the lives of Lumumba Shakur, Afeni Shakur, and Sekou Odinga, among others, and their impact on Black nationalism as well as on modern activism. The Harlem chapter of the Black Panther Party evolved from its founding in the 1960s as the movement grew more militant and the FBI increased its surveillance and harassment of party members. In the 1970s, Mutulu Shakur pioneered acupuncture as a treatment for heroin addiction, and in the same decade, Assata Shakur became the face of the Black Liberation Army as its members robbed drug dealers and banks to fund its activities. Increased violence and clashes with the police led to the collapse of the revolutionary collective in the early 1980s, and in the 1990s, Afeni's son, Tupac, connected with marginalized Black youth through his music and art. Holley's riveting, detailed history is essential reading for understanding modern America and the Shakurs' enduring legacy.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.