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 Biden on Sunday pardoned Marcus Garvey, one of the first Black civil rights leaders, more than 80 years after Garvey’s death.

President Joe Biden on Sunday posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders and was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Also receiving pardons were a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights,

This historic pardon culminates a decades-long fight by Marcus Garvey’s descendants and supporters to right the wrongs of a what many regarded as a politically motivated conviction.

President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Garvey, the influential Black nationalist who inspired leaders like Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

President Joe Biden on Sunday posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders and was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Also receiving pardons were a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights,

Congressional leaders had 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.

President Biden issued a handful of pardons in his final full day in office, granting clemency to individuals who he said have “made significant contributions to improving their communities” as the sun sets on his presidency.