The late Black nationalist Marcus Garvey has officially been pardoned!
During his final days in office, then-President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Garvey on Sunday, January 19. During the 1920s, Garvey was convicted of mail fraud. We reported that congressional leaders were pushing for Biden to pardon Garvey and argued that his conviction was politically motivated.
“Exonerating Marcus Garvey would honor his work for the Black community, remove the shadow of an unjust conviction, and further your administration’s promise to advance racial justice,” the letter reads which is led by U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.
After he was convicted, Marcus Garvey was deported to Jamaica, where he was born. He passed away in 1940. The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reportedly spoke of Garvey and said, “He was the first man, on a mass scale and level to give millions of Black people a sense of dignity and destiny.”
Along with the pardon of Marcus Garvey, Biden also pardoned top Virginia lawmakers as well as immigrant rights, gun violence prevention, and criminal justice reform advocates.