With just about 24 hours left to his presidency, President Biden answered a plea this morning to posthumously pardon late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey for a crime his descendants say he did not commit.
Garvey, the Jamaican-born leader of the “back to Africa” movement, served three years in the federal system for a 1923 mail fraud conviction that his supporters say racist authorities made up.
His children and their supporters have been pushing for a pardon to clear Garvey’s name.
In announcing his granting of clemency, Biden said in a statement: “Notably, Mr. Garey created the Black Star Luinem the first Black-owned shipping line and method of international travel, and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture.”
The statement continued, “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described Mr. Garvey as the ‘first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement.’ Advocates and lawmakers praise his global advocacy and impact, and highlight the injustice underlying his criminal conviction.”
RELATED: Marcus Garvey defendants push for posthumous pardon
The Garvey family, through their lawyer, expressed gratitude for the White House action.
“President Biden did the right thing for the Garvey family and the country by pardoning Marcus Garvey,” lawyer Anthony Pierce told Black News & Views. “The nation has made right a wrong it committed on one of the black disapora’s heroes in the 1920s. I’m proud to have been part of the team that achieved this great result and thank President Biden for his thoughtfulness and leadership.”
Representatives for the Center for Global Africa (CGA), a think tank based in Wilmington, Delaware, also expressed gratitude for Biden’s pardon. The center has been working with the Garvey family to exonerate the civil rights leader.
“This pardoning not only adds to Garvey’s historical legitimacy, it confirms the power of our collective advocacy as global Africans which must now be further leveraged into the self-reliance models that Garvey demonstrated,” Ezrah Aharone, CGA founder and chair, said in a statement.
Said Lorraine Badley, co-chair of the Garvey Exoneration Delaware Campaign, said, “this stain has finally been lifted and we are grateful his surviving son has lived to see the outcome.”
Biden also granted clemency to Kemba Smith, the Black Virginia woman who was convicted of a non-violent drug offense in 1994 after being trafficked as a teen. President Clinton commuted Smith’s sentence in 2000.
The Rev. Mark Thompson, activist and journalist, announced the pardon Sunday morning during his stint as guest preacher at The Riverside Church, New York City, in advance of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day. King famously spoke at the church in 1967. Thompson, during his sermon, offered a list of civil rights leaders with global impact who, like Christ and King, were killed or silenced in their 30s.
“Marcus Garvey, exiled from here in his 30s, and praise God, President Biden finally pardoned Marcus Garvey just this morning,” Thompson said, drawing applause from listeners.
Garvey’s son, Julius Garvey, was traveling from the United States to Jamaica Sunday and was not immediately available to respond to the news.
Biden has issued more individual pardons and commutations than any other president in United States history.