Biden Pardons Revolutionary Marcus Garvey on Last Full Day in Office

The president’s pardon of Garvey, a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, is another reflection of his presidency’s ties to the Black community.

January 19, 2025 at 7:36 p.m. EST

Marcus Garvey in a 1922 parade in Harlem on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World. (AP)

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

President Joe Biden granted a posthumous pardon to civil rights and human rights leader Marcus Garvey and granted pardons or commuted the sentences of a half-dozen other people Sunday, his final day in office. It was an 11th-hour restatement of his determination to highlight what he considers pillars of his legacy: a sense of compassion and a connection to the Black community.

Garvey, who influenced such pivotal leaders as Malcolm X and South African President Nelson Mandela, was convicted of mail fraud in the early 1920s, a case his supporters said was aimed at discrediting the Black revolutionary during a tumultuous period of racial unrest.

“America is a country built on the promise of second chances,” Biden said in a statement announcing the clemency actions. “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.”

Garvey’s descendants have been asking authorities to grant him a pardon for nearly two decades, including a request to Biden shortly after he won the White House. Biden was elected just months after the police killing of George Floyd sparked a nationwide reckoning about historic inequities, and many activists said that reckoning should include righting historic wrongs such as Garvey’s conviction.

Garvey, who was born in 1887 in Jamaica and died in 1940, was known across the globe as the leader of the “back to Africa” movement, which sought to create a self-governing Black nation. He also founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association to press for advancements for people of color across the globe. His activities caught the attention of the FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover, however, and the bureau began looking for reasons to deport Garvey as “an undesirable alien.”

Garvey served two years of his five-year prison sentence, which was then commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. But Garvey was forced to leave the country and was deported to Jamaica.

Garvey’s son on Sunday issued a statement to The Washington Post saying the pardon was “the beginning of the process to completely clear” his father’s name “of any wrongdoing.”

“Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a leader dedicated to the unity and development of African people and his inspiring vision from over 100 years ago is still relevant today. Now his meaningful message can be taught proudly to future generations,” said Julius W. Garvey, chairman of the Marcus Garvey Institute for Human Development.

Biden’s presidency has been closely tied to issues of racial equity, and he further highlighted those ties Sunday when he spent the final day of his tenure in Charleston, South Carolina, to attend a Black church and visit a Black history museum. Biden named the first woman of color to the vice presidency and to the Supreme Court — Kamala Harris and Ketanji Brown Jackson, respectively — but he failed to push through police reform and voting rights bills against staunch Republican opposition.

Pardons and clemency have also been a hallmark of Biden’s presidency, especially in its final days. Biden and his top advisers have even discussed whether to grant unprecedented preemptive pardons to figures who might face the hostility of the incoming Trump administration, concerned that President-elect Donald Trump and others in his circle have threatened to go after their political adversaries.

But Biden now has limited time to issue such pardons, since Trump will take office at noon Monday, and it is not clear if Biden will do so.

On Sunday, Biden also pardoned Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate who was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense in 1998 and sentenced to 17 years in prison. After his release, Chambers joined a Wilmington, Delaware, nonprofit aimed at violence reduction and wrote a book called “Murder Town, USA.

Biden also pardoned Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), who was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense in 1994. After Scott was released, he became an attorney and was ultimately elected to the Virginia legislature in 2019, then became the first Black speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 2024. Scott, a U.S. Navy veteran, donated his kidney to his next-door neighbor in 2021.

In addition, he pardoned immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir and criminal justice reform advocate Kemba Smith Pradia, and he commuted two prisoners’ sentences.

On Friday, Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. The White House said the clemencies targeted people who were serving disproportionately long sentences compared with today’s sentencing guidelines.

Biden has issued more individual pardons and commutations than any other U.S. president.

DeNeen L. Brown contributed to this report.