Her early childhood was spent working for her grandparents in the restaurant and on the beach. Her grandfather instilled in her a love of the written word, and she spent a great deal of her time reading to satisfy her imagination. Her family tried to infuse in her a sense of personal dignity, “you are as good as anyone else. Don’t let anyone tell you that they’re better than you.” Her grandparents would not let her say “yes ma’am” or “yes sir” and she was to look at white people in the eyes when she talked to them.

Shakur's grandparents opened up a business on their beachfront property. Her early childhood was spent working for her grandparents in the restaurant and on the beach. As a kid she would go to the beach and while she was there she would notice that most of the blacks were wearing clothes to

Her name began to get on her nerves, Joanne, she didn’t feel like “no Joanne or no Negro or no Amerikan.” She felt like an African woman. “My mind, heart, and soul had gone back to Africa, but my name was still stranded in Europe somewhere.” She though of other names for herself that would show her true self and she thought of Assata, meaning “she who struggles” and Shakur, meaning “the thankful.” She thought this name fit her much better and showed struggle.

During high school she got a job making $95, but she had to pay almost 1/5 to taxes. “It seemed that the whole world was made up of things I couldn’t afford.” she was working all day and going to school at night. She thought that she “wasn’t making anything, creating anything, or contributing anything.” she would sit there and listen to the gossip and what people were saying about the riots. All she knew is that she wanted the rioters to win. One lady started talking about how it was a shame that they were tearing up and burning down their own neighborhoods. Assata unwillingly agreed confused and on the spot. She later when the topic came up again changed her answer. “What do you mean they’re burning down their houses? They don’t own those houses. They don’t own those stores. I’m glad they burned down those stores because those stores were robbing them in the first place!” She got fired because of this and was relieved to hear so.

Her school was segregated, but in her case the teachers “took more of an interest because they lived in our world, in the same neighborhoods.” She felt like they tried to protect her as much as they could. Assata went to a school dance and no one would dance with her. Richard Kennedy, a boy in her class came over and said, “if you give me a dime, I’ll dance with you.” She said that she though about giving him the dime, so she would be the only one not dancing.

There was a bank robbery and there were posters out everywhere trying to find the woman who did it. On the poster was a picture of a black woman with the name Joanne Chesimard below the photo and “WANTED FOR BANK ROBBERY: $10,000 reward,” above the photo. She was let go and about 2 years later she was brought back in and they

Some topics in this essay:
Shirley Temple, Miss Shirley, North Carolina, Amerikan” African, Greenwich Village, BANK ROBBERY, Marcus Garvey, Richard Kennedy, Community College, Chesimard Shortly, civil war, name joanne, houses don’t own, grandparents restaurant beach, war fought, joanne chesimard, grandparents restaurant, restaurant beach, white dress, people saying, civil war fought, name joanne chesimard, houses don’t, spent grandparents restaurant, supposed godparents,