President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned civil rights leader and Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Garvey served four years in prison until President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927, after which Garvey was deported to Jamaica.

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

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.

The president’s pardon of Garvey, a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, is another reflection of his presidency’s ties to the Black community.

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 pardoned political activist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey and four others on Sunday on his last day in office.

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.