source: Counter Punch

published: 23 January 2025

Image Credit: artur84 at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In [the] pardoning of Marcus Garvey, [President] Joe Biden did something that was long overdue.

Many today do not know who Garvey was or the grave injustice that was done to him.

Born in Jamacia in 1887, he was educated in London and worked for the African Times and Orient Review, a publication that highlighted Pan-African nationalism and influenced his thinking.

In 1914, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica, an organization that tried to achieve Black nationalist aims by celebrating African history and culture.

As one of his last acts in office, President Joe Biden issued a posthumous pardon for Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and generations of civil rights leaders. Advocates and congressional leaders had pushed for Biden to pardon Garvey for years, with supporters arguing that Garvey's 1923 mail fraud conviction was politically motivated and an effort to silence the popular leader who spoke of racial pride and self-reliance.

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Through the UNIA, Garvey pushed for a “back to Africa” movement, going so far as to create the Black Star Line to act as a Black owned passenger line that would carry patrons back and forth to Africa.

This was all derailed by the United States Government when he brought his ideas to America. The Black folks in this country were inspired by his message and began to organize around his ideas. To quell this, Garvey was charged and convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, a sentence that was later commuted by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927.

Congressional leaders and civil rights advocates 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.

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