On his last full day in office on Sunday, President Biden issued five pardons, including one for political activist and black nationalist Marcus Garvey.

President Joe Biden announced a series of last-minute pardons on Sunday, granting clemency to five individuals, including a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey, the late civil rights leader and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

This historic pardon culminates a decades-long fight by Marcus Garvey’s descendants and supporters to right the wrongs of a what many regarded as a politically motivated conviction.

Dr. Julius Garvey pushes for his father Marcus Garvey, who died in 1940, to receive a posthumous presidential pardon.

The Advocate highlights social inequality through original stories and opinions, and content generated by fellow NNPA and other publications

President Joe Biden on Sunday posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders and was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Also receiving pardons were a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights,

Human rights organizations credit Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923, as the first man to organize a mass movement among African-Americans

Congressional leaders had pushed for Biden to pardon Garvey, with supporters arguing that Garvey’s conviction was politically motivated and an effort to silence the increasingly popular leader who spoke of racial pride.

Kemba Smith Pradia was convicted of a non-violent drug offense in 1994 and served 6.5 years of a 24-year sentence. She says her clemency offers a new outlook on life.

Joe Biden made history in criminal justice reform, granting five pardons, including a posthumous one for civil rights icon Marcus Garvey.

On his last full day in the White House President Joe Biden pardoned Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, who served nearly eight years in prison on a drug-related offense.