Assata Shakur Assata Olugbala Shakur (birth name JoAnee Deborah Byron, married name Joanne Chesimard) was born on July 14, 1947. Shortly after her birth, her mother and father divorced. Consequently, Shakur lived with her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother and grandfather (Lula and Frank Hill), in Jamaica, New York. At the age of three, she moved with