In his final full day in office, President Joe Biden has given a posthumous pardon to black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s.
Referring to the pan-Africanist and racial separatist as a “renowned civil rights and human rights leader,” Biden said his 1923 conviction and subsequent five-year sentence was an “injustice.”
Born in 1887 in Saint Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Garvey moved to the U.S. in 1916 before forming the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which aimed to “establish a brotherhood among the black race, to promote a spirit of race pride, to reclaim the fallen and to assist in civilising the backward tribes of Africa.”
In 1922, Garvey was arrested and charged with mail fraud after advertising the sale of stocks in a boat for his shipping company, Black Star Line, which the business did not yet own.
After being found guilty and sentenced to serve five years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, President Calvin Coolidge commuted Garvey’s sentence in 1927, and deported him back to Jamaica.
Biden’s Sunday statement from the White House on Garvey’s posthumous pardon is as follows:
Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) was a renowned civil rights and human rights leader who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927. Notably, Mr. Garvey created the Black Star Line, the first Black-owned shipping line and method of international travel, and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture. 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.
The outgoing president has set a new record for giving out the most individual pardons and commutations, announcing on Friday that he was commuting sentences for almost 2,500 nonviolent drug offenders.
Biden also notably pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing a 17-year sentence after being convicted of tax and gun charges.
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