LUMBERTON — A public memorial for Afeni Shakur, a Lumberton native and the mother of beloved rapper Tupac Shakur, will be held June 4 at Robeson Community College.
Afeni Shakur, 69, died of a heart attack on May 2 on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. She spent most of her later years on a farm off Seventh Street, one of two properties she owned in Lumberton.
As the arbiter of Tupac Shakur’s estate, she established multiple scholarships at Robeson Community College. A room inside the school’s Workforce Development Building is dedicated to her son, who was murdered in 1996 in a still-unresolved drive-by shooting. She was also a big supporter of local libraries.
The memorial service will begin at 10 a.m. inside the A.D. Lewis auditorium on the campus of Robeson Community College, which is located at 5160 Fayetteville Road in Lumberton. Donations to the Afeni Shakur-Davis Scholarship can be mailed to P.O. Box 1420 in Lumberton. Donations should be may payable to the Robeson Community College Foundation.
The memorial was organized by Afeni Shakur’s husband Gust Davis Jr., who serves on the Robeson Community College Foundation’s board of directors. Davis recently established a scholarship at the college in honor of his wife.
September will mark the 20th anniversary of Tupac Shakur’s death. The rapper immortalized his mother in “Dear Mama,” a 1995 single that reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
In addition to her contributions to Robeson Community College, Afeni Shakur was a member of the Chancellor’s Club at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and twice made gifts in support of scholarships there.
She is survived by a daughter, Sekyiwa Shakur.
