Colin Kaepernick has announced a donation of $20,000 to a charity that celebrates convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur, as part of his pledge to donate one million dollars for social justice causes.
Kaepernick said he raised the $20K by soliciting donations from two celebrities, Fox News reported.
According to the former San Francisco 49er second-string quarterback, comedian Hannibal Buress, and actress Yara Shahidi have each pledged $10,000 to be paid out to the charity called Assata’s Daughters. On its website, the organization claims its goal is to carry on with “the tradition of radical liberatory activism encompassed by Assata Shakur.”
Yara Shahidi, an actress from TV’s sitcom series “Black-ish,” praised the organization and thanked Kaepernick for soliciting the donation.
“I decided to donate to Assata’s Daughters, which is an amazing organization based out of Chicago,” Shahidi said in a video on Kaepernick’s website. “And I just have to say thank you to Colin for such an amazing idea, but also in engaging all of us and helping to contribute to our world.”
Assata Shakur, whose real name is JoAnne Deborah Byron, was implicated in the shooting death of New Jersey Trooper Werner Foerster in May of 1973. The Black Liberation Army activist was later convicted of First-Degree murder in the case. The convicted killer escaped prison in 1973 and eventually fled to Communist Cuba.
The donations are part of the $1 million pledge Kaepernick issued in September of 2016 and featured as his final installment in his charitable spending on social justice issues.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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