Afeni Shakur Davis, a former Black Panther activist and the mother of Tupac Shakur, has died at age 69.
According to TMZ, the Marin County Sheriff’s Department arrived at Davis’ home in Sausalito, California, on Monday night at 9:43 p.m. after receiving “a report about a cardiac arrest.” The hospital pronounced her dead at 10:28 p.m.
Davis, born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina, was a well-known activist who spent 11 months in jail while on charge for conspiracy in 1969, before giving birth to Tupac. He regularly celebrated her when he was alive, most famously in his deeply sentimental single “Dear Mama,” where he detailed her drug battles while praising her sacrifice both as a mom and a prominent Black Panther figure. That appreciation carried over to his fans, who knew Afeni as a fighter and mother of a gifted, perplexing rapper whose life ended too soon.
After Pac’s murder in 1996, Afeni started the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation as a charitable platform for aspiring artists. Having outlived her son, she kept alive his legacy and his extensive music catalogue that’s made him one of music’s most successful posthumous artists. Afeni also supported the release of the documentary Tupac: Resurrection and the 2Pac Broadway musical Holler If Ya Hear Me in 2014. More recently, she served as executive producer on the authorized Pac biopic All Eyez On Me, filming of which wrapped in mid-April.
Image via AP