Black Panther AffiliationĪfeni Shakur joined the Black Panthers around age 21. Once she was a member of the Black Panthers, Alice Faye Williams met her soon-to-be husband Lumumba Shakur, converted to Islam, and legally changed her name to Afeni Shakur.

Once settled in the Bronx, Alice, who was a student at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School and subsequently Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts, would often get into fights at school that she believed stemmed from a sense of never feeling like she was safe.Īlthough Alice did well academically, she soon became more interested in politics and activism and joined the Black Panthers after hearing a speech by party cofounder Bobby Seale in 1968. She grew up watching her father beat her mother until, eventually, Rosa Belle moved Alice and her older sister, Gloria “Glo” Jean, from Norfolk, Virginia, back to Lumberton before ultimately ending up in New York. Born to Rosa Belle and Walter Williams Jr., Alice was no stranger to violence, even from an early age. (2004-2016)Īfeni Shakur was born Alice Faye Williams on January 10, 1947, in Lumberton, North Carolina.

Quick FactsįULL NAME: Afeni Shakur (nee Alice Faye Williams) Following Tupac’s death, Shakur started and ran the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.

While her son rose to fame and is still heralded as one of the most influential rappers in history, Shakur was famous in her own right as a Black Panther who famously rejected outside counsel and defended herself in court against a stack of hefty charges and seemingly insurmountable odds. Although some might only recognize Afeni Shakur as Tupac’s mother and the subject of his 1995 track “Dear Mama,” she was also a political activist and philanthropist.

Tupac the rose