How Joe Biden Did What Barack Obama Lacked The Basic Courage To Do…

Marcus Garvey ded­i­cat­ed his entire life to the uplift­ment of the Black race across the globe. As a result of the work of Garvey Blacks have been able to shake off the resid­ual yoke and lies of enslave­ment and colo­nial oppres­sion to ascend to all kinds of posi­tions of pow­er includ­ing the American pres­i­den­cy. Because of the unique role Marcus Garvey played in black lib­er­a­tion in those ear­ly years, he caught the atten­tion and ire of racist forces in America who decid­ed that he would be removed from the equa­tion. Marcus Garvey was unjust­ly indict­ed and con­vict­ed for mail fraud asso­ci­at­ed with the Back to Africa ship­ping com­pa­ny he cre­at­ed. There was no fraud, in actu­al­i­ty the entire alle­ga­tion of fraud rest­ed on a sin­gle logo on a let­ter­head. He was con­vict­ed and giv­en the max­i­mum sen­tence then deport­ed to Jamaica. Marcus Garvey’s sto­ry is intrigu­ing, involv­ing some of the peo­ple in America he fought to pro­vide a voice for and encour­aged to stand in their black­ness. Barack Obama — — — — the nation’s first and only Black President refused to give a posthu­mous par­don to Marcus Garvey but his for­mer Vice President Joe Biden did. We salute President Joe Biden as we com­mem­o­rate the clear­ing of the name of Jamaica’s first National Hero.

Marcus Garvey, a tow­er­ing fig­ure in the fight for Black lib­er­a­tion and empow­er­ment, remains one of the most influ­en­tial lead­ers in the his­to­ry of the African dias­po­ra. However, his lega­cy is taint­ed by a crim­i­nal con­vic­tion that has long been viewed as a mis­car­riage of jus­tice. Pardoning Marcus Garvey is not only a step toward cor­rect­ing a grave his­tor­i­cal wrong but also a sym­bol­ic act of jus­tice that rec­og­nizes the sys­temic oppres­sion he faced and the endur­ing sig­nif­i­cance of his work.
Marcus Garvey was con­vict­ed of mail fraud in 1923 in con­nec­tion to his lead­er­ship of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and its Black Star Line ship­ping enter­prise. This con­vic­tion has been wide­ly crit­i­cized as polit­i­cal­ly and Racially moti­vat­ed, reflect­ing the intense scruti­ny and hos­til­i­ty Garvey faced as a vocal advo­cate for Black pride, eco­nom­ic inde­pen­dence, and self-determination.
The evi­dence against him was ten­u­ous, and many his­to­ri­ans argue that his pros­e­cu­tion was part of a broad­er effort by U.S. author­i­ties to under­mine his influ­ence and sup­press his move­ment. J. Edgar Hoover, then a young offi­cial in the Bureau of Investigation, orches­trat­ed efforts to sur­veil and dis­cred­it Garvey, high­light­ing the racial and polit­i­cal moti­va­tions behind the charges.

Pardoning Garvey would address the injus­tice of his impris­on­ment and depor­ta­tion, which not only dis­rupt­ed his work but also sought to silence a move­ment that empow­ered mil­lions of Black peo­ple world­wide. His vision of eco­nom­ic self-suf­fi­cien­cy and Pan-African uni­ty inspired gen­er­a­tions, lay­ing the foun­da­tion for lat­er civ­il rights and decol­o­niza­tion efforts. Yet, the stig­ma of his con­vic­tion has over­shad­owed his con­tri­bu­tions and per­pet­u­at­ed a nar­ra­tive that under­mines his role as a vision­ary leader. A par­don would also serve as a pow­er­ful acknowl­edg­ment of the broad­er his­tor­i­cal con­text of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in the American legal sys­tem. Garvey’s case is emblem­at­ic of how the jus­tice sys­tem has been weaponized to sup­press dis­sent and tar­get mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. Correcting this injus­tice would not only hon­or his lega­cy but also reaf­firm the prin­ci­ple that jus­tice should be blind to race, ide­ol­o­gy, or polit­i­cal influ­ence. In con­clu­sion, par­don­ing Marcus Garvey is both a moral and sym­bol­ic act. It would rec­ti­fy an unjust con­vic­tion that sought to dis­man­tle a move­ment of empow­er­ment and uni­ty while reaf­firm­ing his right­ful place in his­to­ry as a leader who cham­pi­oned the dig­ni­ty and lib­er­a­tion of Black peo­ple. Such a ges­ture would res­onate far beyond Garvey him­self, remind­ing the world of the need to con­front and redress the sys­temic injus­tices of the past.
On his final full day in office President Joseph Biden issued a full par­don to Marcus Garvey.
Thank you, President Biden. History will remem­ber you kind­ly, if for none of the oth­er great things you did but this one great deed.