Shakur had repeatedly denounced White as a cop because he was 'a hothead. One of the people Shakur cross-examined was Ralph White, a 'suspect' who was in fact an undercover policeman who had infiltrated the Black Panthers. Shakur represented herself at trial, interviewing several witnesses and arguing in court. Charges brought against her and the other members of the Black Panther Party were attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to bomb buildings and conspiracy. The pre-trial started in February 1970 and the actual trial on September 8, 1970. With bail set at $100,000 each for the 21 suspects, the Black Panthers decided to raise bail money first for Joseph and Shakur so that those two could work on raising bail for the others. 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.

She became a section leader of the Harlem chapter and a mentor to new members such as Jamal Joseph. Following their marriage, she changed her name to Afeni Shakur.

There she met Lumumba Shakur, a member of the Suni Muslims, who she married in November 1968. Activism Īfter hearing Bobby Seale speak, Williams joined the Black Panther Party when they opened an office in Harlem in 1968. She briefly worked a postal job, becoming one of the first women mail carriers in New York. She began drifting and became member of a Bronx street gang called the Disciples. However, Williams couldn't afford the school supplies and she felt like an outcast at the school, so she dropped out after one term. She chose the latter because she felt performers and actors were free spirited. In 1962, Williams passed the qualifying examinations for the Bronx High School of Science and High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. 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. Williams attended Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in the Bronx, where she demonstrated above average reading ability and her grades qualified her for honors. At the age of eleven in 1958, Williams and her sister moved to the South Bronx with their mother, a factory worker. She had a troubled beginning and grew up resenting her father, a truck driver, because he was abusive towards her mother. She had an older sister, Gloria 'Glo' Jean. Afeni Shakur was born Alice Faye Williams on January 10, 1947, in Lumberton, North Carolina.

Dear mama harlem