Marcus Garvey, Jamaican political and civil rights activist. Photo: MGN Online

On January 19, his last full day in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the beloved Black revolutionary and human rights activist who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years of imprisonment, according to a White House statement from the president.

After two years of prison, Mr. Garvey’s sentence was commuted, or reduced, and he was deported to his birthplace of Jamaica. He formed the Black Star Line, a Black-owned shipping line, and taught on the need for Black people to unite. He was targeted by the U.S. government for his activism and revolutionary work on behalf of Black people.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, described Mr. Garvey as “a good man who would not bow.”

“They trumped up charges on him, jailed and then deported him. Today, we appreciate Marcus Garvey as a great man, but his contemporaries did not think much of such a great man,” he said in a message delivered on Nov. 7, 2005, at Little Rock Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.

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Congressional leaders had been pushing for President Biden to pardon Mr. Garvey, and supporters argued the conviction was politically motivated, according to the Associated Press.

“We thank President Biden for granting this posthumous pardon which will serve as the beginning of the process to completely clear my father’s name of any wrongdoing which is important to our family and many millions of people across the world,” Julius W. Garvey, son of Marcus Garvey and chairman of the board of The Marcus Garvey Institute for Human Development, told Newsweek.

“Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a leader dedicated to the unity and development of African people and his inspiring vision from over 100 years ago is still relevant today. Now his meaningful message can be taught proudly to future generations.”

Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, thanked the U.S. president and supporters on the social media platform X.

“The Jamaican Government welcomes the posthumous pardon of our National Hero the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey. We consider this as a first step in the total exoneration, absolution and expungement of a historical wrong done to one of the most significant civil rights leader and Pan Africanist,” he wrote.

President Biden pardoned four other individuals and commuted, or reduced, the sentences of two.

Those pardoned include Darryl Chambers of Wilmington, Delaware, a gun violence prevention advocate who was convicted of a non-violent drug offense and sentenced to 17 years in 1998; Ravidath “Ravi” Ragbir of Brooklyn, New York, an immigrant rights activist who was convicted of a non-violent offense in 2001;

Don Leonard Scott, Jr., of Portsmouth, Virginia, the first Black speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, who was convicted of a non-violent drug offense in 1994 and sentenced to 10 years and Kemba Smith Pradia of Ashburn, Va., a criminal justice advocate who was convicted of a non-violent drug offense in 1994, according to the White House statement the AP reported.

Previously, the president commuted the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and announced he was converting 37 of the 40 federal death row sentences to life imprisonment, according to the AP.