President Joe Biden issued several new pardons Sunday, including one for the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey.
Garvey, the Jamaican-born founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the first person to lead a mass movement among Black Americans, was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s, imprisoned and later deported to Jamaica, where he died in 1940.
Garvey’s ideas sparked generations of Black thinkers around the globe. He was an early influence on Malcolm X, and his ideas about Black unity were part of the foundation of both the Black Power Movement and Rastafarianism. His image has appeared on currency in Jamaica.
Other pardons went to:
- Kemba Smith Pradia, a criminal justice advocate convicted of a nonviolent drug offense
- Don Leonard Scott, the first Black speaker of the Virginia State Legislature convicted of a nonviolent drug offense
- Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate convicted of a nonviolent drug offense
- Ravidath “Ravi” Ragbir, an immigration advocate convicted of a nonviolent offense
The president has also commuted 37 of the 40 federal death row sentences.
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