Afeni Shakur Davis (born Alice Faye Williams; January 10, 1947 – May 2, 2016) was an American political activist and member of the Black Panther Party.
[4][5] Williams attended Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in the Bronx, where she demonstrated above average reading ability and her grades qualified her for honors.
[5] She wrote for the school newspaper, The Franklin Flash, and in the ninth grade, won a journalism award for which she received congratulations from Mayor Robert F.
[5] After hearing Bobby Seale speak, Williams joined the Black Panther Party when they opened an office in Harlem in 1968.
[9][8] In April 1969, she and twenty other Black Panthers were arrested and charged with several counts of conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public places in New York.
[13] One of the people Shakur cross-examined was Ralph White, a "suspect" who had, in fact, infiltrated the Black Panthers while working as an undercover policeman.
"[17] After being released, she participated in a workshop organized by the Gay Liberation Front at the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention in 1970, and she continued to advocate against homophobia in the Black Panthers.
[17] As a paralegal, Shakur often worked in New York's only women's prison at the time, the Bedford Hill Correctional Facility.
Following the events of what would come to be known as the August Rebellion, Shakur helped connect Crooks to prisoner' rights attorney, Steven Latimer.
[18] The case was ruled in Crooks' favor and won incarcerated women the right to due process prior to their being sent to segregated prison, or solitary confinement.
[19] While working with the South Bronx Legal Services in 1973, Shakur helped organize a day of solidarity for families and friends of the Bedford Hill Correctional Facility for Women.
On June 16, 1971, she gave birth to her son, Lesane Parish Crooks, who was later renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur.
[26] In the song, he reflects on his childhood, acknowledges Afeni's troubles with addiction, and expresses his love for her: "And even as a crack fiend mama, you always was a black queen mama, I finally understand for a woman it ain't easy tryin' to raise a man, you always was committed, a poor single mother on welfare tell me how you did it, there's no way I can pay you back, but the plan is to show you that I understand you are appreciated.
[30] His close friends, actresses Jada Pinkett and Jasmine Guy, provided emotional support for Shakur and advised her to hire lawyers to sort out Tupac's assets.
[32] In her biography, which was written by Jasmine Guy, Shakur reflected on her childhood experiences and her upbringing as well as her involvement in the Black Panther Party.
[44] In 2013, Shakur sued Entertainment One claiming they failed to pay Tupac's estate royalties worth seven figures for 2007’s Beginnings: The Lost Tapes.
A court ruled Entertainment One must pay over six figures for royalties from Shakur's posthumous releases and all the unreleased recordings would go back to the estate.
She went to court several times, spending millions of dollars, which she stated led to her selling the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, eventually settling for an undisclosed amount of money.