Marcus Garvey was granted a posthumous pardon by former President Joe Biden on his last full day in office, January 19. The late Jamaican-born activist, who was a prominent proponent of Black nationalism,
Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican civil rights activist, the founding father of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and an owner of the Black Star Line shipping company.
Julius Garvey receives long-awaited pardon for his father Marcus Garvey, a Black nationalist and activist. President Biden's last-minute action clears his name.
Jamaica and the Caribbean African diaspora reacted quickly and joyfully to the news that outgoing US President Joe Biden issued a posthumous pardon for visionary disruptor and international organizer,
"Garvey’s life was dedicated to [a] vision of justice larger than any single race or nation. His wrongful conviction [is] a reflection of the work that remains before us.”
The widespread favorable media response to the pardon speaks to the enduring usefulness of Garvey’s brand of identity politics to the powers that be.
In one of his final acts in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, whose advocacy for Black nationalism and self-reliance left an indelible mark on leaders like Malcolm X and movements across the Black diaspora.
President Biden on Sunday pardoned Marcus Garvey, one of the first Black civil rights leaders, more than 80 years after Garvey’s death.
President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned civil rights leader and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, along with four others, and commuted two sentences.
Congressional leaders had pushed for Biden to pardon Garvey, with supporters arguing that Garvey’s conviction was politically motivated and an effort to silence the increasingly popular leader who spoke of racial pride.
America is a country,” Pres. Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon alongside four others, “built on the promise of second chances.”
President Joe Biden issued another round of pardons on Sunday, including a posthumous one for Black nationalist Marcus Garvey.