Into the Vault: Tupac's Handwritten Essay "Give me Liberty or Give me Death"
Did you know just a small percentage of our collection is actually on display inside the Museum of Pop Culture? With more than 120,000 objects in our care, it becomes a little easier to understand why there can't be a place to publicly display each one of our artifacts at the same time. But just because a piece isn't currently on view at our nonprofit museum, doesn't mean it's not important to popular culture. *cue ominous music*
To celebrate 20 years of MoPOP, we're taking visitors Into the Vault in 2020, highlighting artifacts from our broad collection and showcasing their place in popular culture. This month, in honor of Juneteenth, we take a closer look at a 1992 handwritten essay from Tupac Amaru Shakur titled Give me Liberty or Give me Death, part of the MoPOP Permanent Collection. The legendary hip hop artist would have been 49 this week (June 16).
Images of the essay and its full transcription are below.
Tupac Amaru Shakur handwritten essay page 1, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," 1992 (MoPOP Permanent Collection)
[Header:] [Actual] “Give me Liberty of Give me Death”
As a [inserted] JR High student reading about the perils of the American Revolution
I understood what Patrick Henry meant when he uttered these words
I think every young black male and [inserted] minority youth in general can relate
greatly to that. Proven by the fact that I never forgot who
Patrick Henry was. Because even as a youngster I
understood his thirst for Liberty; and now as a young black
male coming of age in a world who promises my extinction
Before the turn of the century, I Too want to cry out
those same words, But where the little boys & girls
of South Central went
As the poor, downtrodden, "little people" took from the
shelves, hangers and isles of stores they could never afford
I felt like the colonists must of felt as they saw
Americans dressed like Indians throwing Valuable barrells[sic]
of tea into the Boston waters. What would the
Media call them? Gangbangers surely wouldn’t fit such
an act they were patriots they were Rebels they
were Right and Now in 1992 No matter what u believe we de Patriots
we ARE Rebels we are Right and when the Jury
issued the Not guilty verdict it sounded alot[sic] like
Marie Antionette’s let them eat cake speech.
AmeriKKKA,[sic] we have to take responsibility for our
mistakes, U[sic] can’t prosecute the suspects in the Reginald Denny
case without first prosecuting Not only those “police officers”
who beat Rodney King but the ones who beat me and
every other minority in the inner city and every activist
and every homosexual and every Victim of AmeriKKKas[sic] on
the closet oppression.
Tupac Amaru Shakur handwritten essay page 2, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," 1992 (MoPOP Permanent Collection)
[Page 2 Actual:]
Malcom X once said something to the effect of
u can’t stab me 4 inches in my back
pull 2 inches out and expect
gratitude we cannot begin to heal until we
first identify the wound & take responsibility
and then and only then can we rebuild our Nation
and yes I said our nation because after 400 yrs[sic]
and unmeasurable amount of dead black bodies later
we have earned our Right to be American. The AmericaKKKan[sic]
tradition continues through us The tables have turned,
mainstarea If u are asking the question why did they…?
then u R now resembling Great Britton[sic] large & indominable
as she seem when the Colonist are finished with being
oppressed the revolution will begin. What happened
during the riots was merely a preview of coming attractions
if AmeriKKKa[sic] doesn’t recognize her forgotten colonist. This
Time it will take more than marches to heal the wounds
It will take imagination, [ill] 4 another human being and
Respect for the sickness this country has let go unchecked
After being trapped in the gutters and the ghettos of
AmeriKa[sic] we are now ready 2 be First class citizens
no string attached we’ve died like americans[sic] overseas
and cannot live like american[sic] here n our country
We as adults we never see the finish effects
of years of re-education but we doom our babies
to our consequences if we don’t as mothers
fathers, preachers, police, gangbangas[sic] and teachers
don’t mold our children with the truth about our mistakes
[left margin says] (I meant to leave this as is)
All men people R created equal! Those words
must be lived by if not we all die by the
words of Patrick Henry
Give me Liberty or Give me death
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