The announcement that the Biden administration pardoned the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey on January 19 was some of the most welcome news we have received at African American Golfer’s Digest in a long time. “This news is long-awaited and I am thrilled to learn it,” said Publisher Debert Cook. “The pardon is an initiative that should have been done years ago, as Garvey gave his life’s work to instilling pride and information to the Black race.”
Biden took on the task of posthumously pardoning Marcus Garvey, something that even the Obama administration refused to do. Garvey’s unjust arrest and conviction on trumped up mail fraud charges, was little more than a wild conspiracy, orchestrated by the United States, foreign governments and a cabal of “negro boot-lickers.” Garvey was and is guilty of one “crime,” loving and being willing to die for Black people. This “crime” has brought him vilification for more than a century, claimed a report by The Black Classic Press.
As happy as many people are with the pardon, we must recognize this, as a hard-fought victory, that Black people around the world have demanded since Marcus Garvey’s wrongful conviction in 1923. Thousands of Black people protested his initial conviction. And over the decades, hundreds of thousands more have supported efforts to exonerate Marcus Garvey. Most recently, that effort, led by Garvey’s surviving son, Dr. Julius Garvey, has attracted support from all segments of the global Black community. Supporters include heads of state, and elected officials of the Congressional Black Caucus, who all lobbied for Garvey’s pardon.
This pardon is a welcomed first step in the protracted process of reversing Garvey’s unjust conviction. As the fight continues for the exoneration of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, many people will not rest until full dignity and honor is restored to this Black man, and the movement he led to free Black people.
