Afeni Shakur, mother of rapper Tupac Shakur, dies at 69

(Image credit: Twitter.com/TheRoot)

published 3 May 2016

Afeni Shakur Davis, rapper Tupac Shakur's mother and the subject of his hit song "Dear Mama," died Monday at her home in Sausalito, California. She was 69.

The Marin County Sheriff's Office says a family friend called 911 Monday night, saying Shakur Davis was in "physical distress." Spokesman Lt. Doug Pittman said she was unresponsive when paramedics arrived, and she was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Pittman met Shakur Davis for the first time in 1988, and called her a "well-known and respected member of our community" whose death was a "tragic loss." It is believed she suffered from cardiac arrest.

When she was pregnant with Tupac, Shakur Davis was a member of the Black Panther Party, and spent time in prison. She was part of the New York 21, accused and later acquitted of conspiring to bomb police stations and department stores. After her son's murder in 1996 at the age of 25, Shakur Davis came into control of his estate, and in 2006 she told the Los Angeles Times, "I say it every time, that Tupac left us the blueprints to follow." In 2015, she helped the Grammy Museum with its "All Eyez on Me: The Writings of Tupac Shakur" exhibition, which included outfits he wore during concerts, handwritten lyrics and poems, and videos.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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