WASHINGTON, DC – Twenty-one Congressional members have recently written a letter to President Biden expressing support for the posthumous exoneration of civil rights leader Marcus Garvey.
The letter noted Garvey was a “Jamaican-born Pan-Africanist leader who led one of the earliest Black Civil Rights movements in the Americas,” and was convicted of mail fraud over 101 years ago in an effort to “criminalize, discredit, and silence him as a civil rights leader.”
The letter also describes Garvey’s achievements, contextualizing that during his lifetime, Garvey “founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association,” advocating for Black individual’s’ autonomy and “economic independence.”
Garvey, the letter added, “established the Black Star Line, one of the first Black-owned shipping companies, which connected Black entrepreneurs across the Americas,” and “published the Negro World Newspaper which, at its peak, reached a circulation of 200,000 readers weekly.”
Garvey’s efforts to help the Black community worldwide earned him much praise but also put a target on his back, leading to his eventual charge and conviction by the authorities, said the lawmakers.
Garvey’s case was fraught with “prosecutorial and governmental misconduct,” according to the letter by the Congressional members.
As a result, since initially being sentenced, Garvey’s sentence has since been commuted upon eligibility by former President Calvin Coolidge, according to the office of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, in the “interests of justice and the wrong and vengeful nature of the original case.”
However, efforts to fully exonerate Garvey have not yet been successful, noted lawmakers.
The office of Congresswoman Clarke explained that “in 1987, under Congressman John Conyers’ leadership, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on Mr. Garvey’s exoneration,” and, “in 2004, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced a series of resolutions calling attention to the injustice,” but neither led to Garvey’s exoneration.
Garvey’s exoneration would “advance racial justice,” and allow Biden, “at the conclusion of your administration…to leave an indelible mark on history,” argued Rep. Clarke and 20 other Congressional members.
