Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, has welcomed the posthumous pardon of Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, by the outgoing United States (US) President Joe Biden.
Mr. Biden's pardons in recent days come after the president made the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history in December by commuting the sentences of around 1,500 people and pardoning nearly 40 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Earlier that month, he also issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.
America is a country,” Pres. Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon alongside four others, “built on the promise of second chances.”
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was the most famous black man on the planet. The Jamaican-born black nationalist led the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a mass movement of
President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned civil rights leader Marcus Garvey and four others in one of his last acts in office.
Civil rights advocates and lawmakers have long said that Mr. Garvey’s 1923 conviction for mail fraud was unjust, arguing that he was targeted for his work.
U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned five people on Sunday, including the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, and commuted the sentences of two, the White House said in a statement.
President Biden’s legacy may get a boost, at least from activists and Black Nationalists, with his latest round of pardons and commutations.
In his final hours as president, Joe Biden pardoned Marcus Garvey and commuted Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier’s life sentence to house arrest. Black and Indigenous activists celebrate these wins,
Marcus Garvey, Jamaica’s first national hero, was pardoned by President Biden, rectifying a century-old injustice and honouring his legacy.
President Biden pardoned political activist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey and four others on Sunday on his last day in office.