Criminal and political civil rights activist. He was born under the name of Gary Lee Graham to Willie Graham and Thelma Griffin. His mother died in 1988...and Graham was raised at age 7 by his paternal grandmother Joanne...his father...and his stepmother Elnora Graham...in Houston, Texas. He...fathered two children, Deidra and Gary Lee Hawkins, by the age of 15. ... He is said to have turned his life around: He learned to read and write, and earned his GED and paralegal certification; he also co-founded a prison organization and a newspaper called "The Endeavor Project", devoted to abolishing capital punishment. ...In 1995, he changed his name to Shaka Sankofa, because the name is said to have represented his African heritage and freedom. During his final years up to his execution his case attracted worldwide attention from public figures and celebrities. In 2000, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, appointed by President George W. Bush (then-governor of Texas), voted against requests for a reprieve, commutation, pardon, or halt. On June 22...In his long final statement, he maintained his innocence to the very end and encouraged everyone to abolish the death penalty. He became the 222nd person executed in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982. On June 28, more than 2,000 people, including his family and his grandson, attended the wake, and a funeral followed the next day, attended by 200 more people, after which he was interred in Paradise North Cemetery. Sankofa is memorialized in a book he had written at the end of his life, called "The Evolution of Shaka Sankofa", published after his death. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed executions of juvenile offenders, and today, activists and death penalty abolitionists are still working hard to fulfill his last request to abolish the death penalty.