The controversial Black liberation activist formerly known as Joanne Deborah Chesimard fled to Cuba after escaping a New Jersey prison.

Patrick Oppmann was a 21-year-old college student doing a stint with CNN’s Havana bureau when he tasked himself with finding a woman who had evaded the long arm of American law enforcement for nearly 20 years.

In honor of Assata Shakur’s passing, we remember the life, image, and words of a monumental icon in the fight for liberation.