Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer known for rejecting journalistic neutrality, is facing another wave of backlash after using a new column to celebrate the life of Assata Shakur, a convicted murderer and former member of the Black Liberation Army. The piece, published this month, revives long-standing criticism that Hannah-Jones repeatedly shapes historical narratives to fit ideological goals rather than established fact.
Hannah-Jones has long positioned herself as a figure of journalistic activism. She once declared that “all journalism is activism”, a statement that has fueled debates in academic and media circles. Critics say her latest column fits that pattern, offering a sympathetic portrait of Shakur while disregarding her violent record and the victims left behind.
Shakur’s History, Sanitized in Print
Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron, later known as Joanne Chesimard and then Assata Shakur, was a member of both the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. In 1977, she was convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, a Vietnam veteran, husband, and father. She escaped prison, fled to Cuba, and died there earlier this year.
Shakur’s violent background stretched far beyond one case. She had been wounded in what investigators believed was a drug-related incident at Manhattan’s Statler Hilton. She was wanted in connection with a 1971 bank robbery and later shrugged off robberies entirely, saying, “There were expropriations, there were bank robberies.”
Witnesses also linked her to a grenade attack that injured two police officers. In 1972, Monsignor John Powis identified her as one of the suspects in the armed robbery at Our Lady of the Presentation Church in Brooklyn. During that robbery, the perpetrators allegedly warned the priest, “We usually just blow the heads off White men.”
Despite this lengthy criminal record, Hannah-Jones’ column frames Shakur largely as a victim of injustice, including by emphasizing that her murder conviction came from an “all-white” jury while omitting many relevant facts.
A Violent Confrontation on the New Jersey Turnpike
Shakur’s most notorious crime occurred on May 2, 1973, when State Trooper James Harper stopped a vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike. Trooper Werner Foerster arrived for backup. A shootout followed. Harper was wounded, and Foerster was killed.
Shakur went on trial for a broad set of charges over the years, from kidnapping to attempted murder. Some cases ended in acquittals or mistrials, including one delayed due to pregnancy, but the murder conviction stood.
A Narrative Recast Through an Ideological Lens
In the column, Hannah-Jones compares the criminal network that harbored Shakur to the system that helped enslaved people escape before the Civil War, saying, “Shakur had been hidden in the United States for several years by a sort of Underground Railroad.”
She also wrote that “freedom came with shattering costs for her and her family.” Missing entirely is any acknowledgment of the widow and son Trooper Foerster left behind, or the other victims linked to violent incidents involving the Black Liberation Army.
This selective framing reflects a long-running pattern. Hannah-Jones recently wrote that public memorials for Charlie Kirk are “dangerous”, and previously chastised journalists who reported on shoplifting because “this is how you legitimize the carceral state.”
A Broader Pattern Inside a Major Newspaper
Her latest column appears amid concerns that powerful editors and institutions continue to give her space to reshape history. In the past, the publication that ran her work has rejected op-eds by lawmakers who argued for National Guard deployments during riots, while openly printing pieces from figures aligned with authoritarian regimes or academics who defended political violence.
The organization has also pushed out editors who questioned activist-style reporting or allowed dissenting viewpoints. Critics argue this has contributed to an environment where ideological narratives repeatedly overshadow balanced journalism.
An Ending That Raises Alarms
Hannah-Jones concludes her column with the striking claim that, “Shakur, who saw herself as an escaped slave, died free.”
Her subject, a convicted murderer and fugitive labeled a domestic terrorist in 2005, spent her final years under the protection of an oppressive Cuban regime. Yet Hannah-Jones frames that outcome as liberation.
Meanwhile, Trooper Werner Foerster, the man killed in the Turnpike shootout, goes unnamed and unacknowledged in her narrative. His life and his family’s loss receive not a single mention.
