By Yvonne Hayes, Mark Satinoff (reporting from New York), and Pete Seidman (reporting from Miami)

A New York meeting to celebrate the life of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur highlighted Cuba’s internationalism and sounded the alarm about U.S. threats of war against the island nation. Gathering at the historic Riverside Church in Manhattan on May 30, 2026, more than 2,000 people — overwhelmingly Black — paid tribute to Shakur, a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army who died in Havana in September 2025.

Shakur was charged with murder in 1973 following a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that left one of her friends and a New Jersey state trooper dead. Shakur herself was critically wounded while still in the seat of the car. She was sentenced to life plus 33 years, although no evidence linked her to the weapons involved and the defense was denied the right to present evidence that the traffic stop was politically motivated. In 1979, with the aid of her comrades, she escaped from prison and ultimately found refuge in Cuba in 1984.

The Cuban government recognized Shakur as a political prisoner, targeted because of her political views and activism in the Black liberation movement, and — in keeping with international law — welcomed her, granting her asylum and permanent residency. She spent the next 40 years on the island, free but with a $2 million bounty on her head. She taught English, expressing herself through art, and working on various projects that brought together Black people from around the globe.

Writer and activist Angela Davis, herself affiliated with the Black Panther Party in the 1970s, was among the opening speakers and the first — although not the last — to point out that the defense of Cuba was a part of Shakur’s legacy. Cuba was mentioned in numerous speeches throughout the 3-½ hour program.

Davis recalled that after Shakur’s death, people all over the world posted powerful tributes. Except for the head of the FBI, Davis said, who “issued angry rebukes … continuing the long tradition of governmental demonization of Black women.” The defense of Shakur’s legacy today, she explained, is the defense of the right of Black women to participate in and lead the fights for reproductive justice, solidarity with Palestine, against the war in Iran, and “now especially, movements to defend Cuba.” Davis’ last comment was met with a resounding ovation.

‘Black liberation movement owes a great debt to Cuba’

Lennox Hinds, former national director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, met Shakur for the first time while she was hospitalized, recovering from wounds resulting from the Turnpike shooting. He became her lawyer and represented her over the course of the next half century.

Hinds spoke of Shakur’s unyielding, lifelong determination to fight “against racism and exploitation in the United States and around the world, in support of national liberation movements struggling against colonialism and imperialism in Africa and elsewhere, in support of the rights of workers and political prisoners, in support of victims of police brutality and injustice in every corner of the globe.” He reiterated several times his thanks to the Cuban people for having welcomed her into their fold; each time, the crowd responded with cheers and applause.

“Let me close by explaining why the Black Liberation Movement, why all of the people here today, why the people of Southern Africa owe a great debt to Cuba,” Hinds said.

“When Africa called, Cuba sent her sons to help in the liberation of Angola, in the liberation of Namibia. And as my client Nelson Mandela has said, South Africa is free today because of Cuba,” Hinds explained.

“Over the years,” he continued, “Cuba has recognized dozens of political prisoners from the Black liberation movement here in the United States. In 1975, I represented Elridge Cleaver, who was granted political asylum in Cuba…. Also in the 1970s, I spent time with Huey Newton^[1] while he was in exile with his family in Havana.”

Hinds recounted a conversation with Fidel Castro^[2] while Hinds was in Cuba in 2000 as part of a delegation of jurists during the fight to return Elián González^[3] to his father on the island. “Fidel … began talking to me about the CIA’s obsession with him. He talked about the many attempts to assassinate him and about the profile that the CIA had on him.”

“[Castro] said, ‘I read it all and concerning my personalities, traits, and idiosyncrasies, I agree with the CIA. They were correct about me,’’’ Hinds explained. “He then leaned over and said to me, ‘Lennox, I read their description of Assata, and I totally disagree with their description of Assata as a terrorist. We in Cuba believe, and under international law we granted, her asylum as a political refugee. We will never give her up!’

“My friends, Cuba never submitted or bent to U.S. political or economic pressure concerning Assata,” Hinds said. “There are plans now to invade Cuba. It is no secret [there are] CIA operatives who are among you tonight. Let us send a message to them to take back to their bosses: To get to Cuba, they must come through us!”

Hinds concluded by leading the crowd in a chant: “¡Viva Cuba! ¡Venceremos!” [Long live Cuba! We will win!]

‘In Cuba there is no luxury; what you gain is peace’

Veteran civil rights and Cuba solidarity activist Rosemari Mealy also spoke. She and Shakur became close when Mealy was living and working in Cuba as a journalist. “[Assata] would often say to me, ‘Cuba is a different kind of place. There is no extreme luxury. You have what you need here, but it is not a materialistic consumer-oriented society. What you gain is peace, the freedom to let your mind wander and the ability to trust people here,’” Mealy recalled.

“That truth stays with me even now,” Mealy continued. “Cuba refused to abandon one of the most hunted revolutionaries in the United States, even under decades of blockade, isolation, and pressures. In their refusal, it showed that a nation’s principles are measured not only by what it says, but by whom it will not surrender.

“Today, [as] we honor our beloved ancestor, Sister Cuba itself is under siege. Across the island, no oil deliveries for three months, medical care is disrupted, the electric grids are strained, and ordinary people, including children, are made to bear extraordinary hardships.

“That is why solidarity cannot be abstract; it must be practical, defended, and made visible.”

Mealy related that following Shakur’s death, talking about Cuba’s defense of the exile, the country’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla said simply, “We fulfilled our duty.”

“That duty now passes to us,” Mealy declared. “If we love Assata, then we must love and defend Cuba in her name…. No war on Cuba!”

Again, the audience responded with powerful affirmations.

A video of the Riverside Church tribute to Shakur can be viewed here; an interactive tribute book includes many moving tributes, including by political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal and Native American leader and political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

Protests in New York City, Miami

The day after the Riverside Church gathering, actions were held in New York City and Miami, Florida, to demand an end to U.S. military threats against Cuba and Washington’s blockade of the island aimed at starving the Cuban people into submission.

Sparked by growing concern about the escalation of crude threats of military intervention in Cuba by U.S. president Donald Trump and his secretary of state Marco Rubio, about 250 protesters gathered across from New York City’s Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden on May 31. This was a significantly larger and broader demonstration than similar Cuba solidarity actions in recent years. It included an array of Black, Puerto Rican, antiwar, Cuba solidarity, and political organizations.

Cuba solidarity activists in Florida scored a big success at their picket line outside the Miami International Airport the same day. Ultraright Cubans had advertised a plan to stage a counterprotest to disrupt the demonstration called by the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. The flyer from the rightists declared: “Countermarch against a group of pro-communist demonstrators.”

The action protesting U.S. war threats against the island was scheduled for the flag plaza at the airport; the rightists announced they would occupy the plaza — a small area and the only one where public protest is allowed near the airport — ahead of the solidarity action and, if necessary, confront police over their “right” to free speech. The solidarity group had a permit for the day, the only one issued by the airport authorities, but there were concerns it might be cancelled due to the right-wing threats.

As a diverse and energetic crowd of more than 50 solidarity activists gathered, carrying signs and chanting, a group of about 20 rightists — many fewer than in similar actions in the past — taunted them. Among the provocative remarks was a steady barrage of shouts: “Are you even Cuban?” essentially saying, “If you aren’t, you don’t have the right to an opinion.” Ironically, many of the people on the receiving end of these jibes were young Cuban Americans, including some from the group Cuban Americans for Cuba.

The police eventually moved the right-wing group across the street from the designated area. The Miami Coalition action received more media coverage than any of its other events in recent years.

More protests in the works

Cuba solidarity groups across the United States are busy organizing other events in response to the growing threats from the Trump administration.

The Cuba Si NY-NJ Coalition has scheduled a speakout in New York City on June 6.

The Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba is organizing a “No War on Cuba” protest on June 6 with broad sponsorship from labor, community, and political organizations.

In Miami, a demonstration has been called by some Cubans expressing concern about the impact of the oil blockade on the island. The spokesperson for the group is interested in the Miami Coalition’s offer to help build this action.

The upcoming actions include contingency plans for emergency protests if the U.S launches an attack on the island. Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York are among the cities that have developed such plans.

As the meeting at the Riverside Church and other protests have shown, the possibility of building united front actions — around the demands “U.S. Hands Off Cuba! No to Washington’s War on the Cuban People! End the Blockade!” — is growing as U.S. threats intensify.

NOTES

[1] Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an early leader of the Black Panther Party. Jailed on charges of attempted murder in 1968 following an incident involving the Oakland, California, police, Cleaver jumped bail and went initially to Cuba, later to Algeria, and then France.

Huey P. Newton was a co-founder of the Black Panther Party in 1966. The party’s program included better housing, education, and jobs, as well as the right to armed self-defense by the Black community. Newton was charged with murder in 1974 and fled to Cuba. He returned to face these charges in 1977, resulting in two trials ending with hung juries.

[2] Fidel Castro Ruz was the central leader of the Cuban Revolution. He served as Cuba’s president from 1976 until his retirement in 2008. He died in 2016.

[3] On November 21, 1999, Elián González Brotons — a six-year-old — was taken from Cuba by his mother and her partner aboard a boat of refugees attempting to reach the United States. The boat sank and Elián’s mother, along with most of the passengers, drowned. Elián was found floating on an inner tube and turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard. The boy was taken to a hospital and treated for dehydration and minor cuts.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) granted Elián temporary permission to stay in the country and placed him with his granduncle, Lázaro González, in Miami. The boy’s Miami relatives wanted him to remain in the country, while his father, Juan Miguel González, sought his return to Cuba. A high-profile and protracted custody battle resulted in Elián being returned to his father’s custody after an INS raid on his Miami relatives’ home on April 22, 2000. They returned to Cuba when the legal dispute concluded on June 28, 2000. Elián González, now an industrial engineer, has openly stated that he never had regrets about his return to Cuba.

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