For his final acts as Commander-In-Chief, President Joe Biden gave out five pardons to individuals, including Marcus Garvey, the trailblazing Black nationalist.
In an official statement, Biden shared why he used his executive powers to grant clemency.
“America is a country built on the promise of second chances. As President, I have used my clemency power to make that promise a reality by issuing more individual pardons and commutations than any other President in U.S. history,” Biden wrote.
“Today, I am exercising my clemency power to pardon five individuals and commute the sentences of two individuals who have demonstrated remorse, rehabilitation and redemption,” the statement continued. “These clemency recipients have each made significant contributions to improving their communities.”
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., better known as Marcus Garvey, was the first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA). He was an early advocate of Pan-Africanism, and his ideas were known as “Garveyism.”
Gravy was a staunch advocate and leader of the “Back to Africa” Movement and sought to create an independent Black nation on the continent. He also founded the Black Star Line, a steamship company, Universal Printing House, Negro Factories Corporation and the hugely successful Negro World, a weekly newspaper.
The pardon of Garvey comes after 21 Democratic members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter pleading with Biden to grant clemency to Garvey. Many people belive that Garvey was the subject of racism because of his Pan-Africanist message
Along with Garvey, others who were granted clemency included Don Scott, a lawyer who spent seven years in prison for a nonviolent drug offense. He was elected to the Virginia legislature in 2019, and last year, he became the first Black speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.
On Sunday, Scott expressed his gratitude to Biden for his “commitment to second chances.”
“I will never forget the pain my family felt when I was sentenced or the sound of my mother’s anguish in that courtroom,” Scott’s statement read. “But I also won’t forget the joy of redemption and renewal — the sound of her tears as I was sworn in as Speaker.”
Also pardoned were Darryl Chambers, an advocate for gun violence prevention who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for a nonviolent drug offense in 1998; Ravi Ragbir, an advocate for immigrants who was convicted of a nonviolent offense in 2001; and prison reform activist Kemba Smith Pradia who was sentenced to a 24.5 federal prison sentence.
Robin Peoples and Michelle West also had their sentences commuted by Biden. Both will finish their sentences on February 18, 2025.
