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Civil rights leaders and lawmakers have long said that Mr. Garvey’s 1923 conviction for mail fraud was unjust, arguing that he was targeted for his work.
Erica L. Green
President Biden pardoned five activists and public servants on Sunday, including a posthumous grant of clemency to the civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, who mobilized the Black nationalist movement and was convicted of mail fraud in 1923.
Mr. Biden also commuted the sentence of two other people who are serving sentences for crimes that they committed in the 1990s that would keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives. The two individuals, whose petitions have overwhelming support from civil rights activists, will be released next month, Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden, who has issued more individual pardons and commutations than any other president, said that the clemency recipients had “demonstrated remorse, rehabilitation and redemption,” and “each made significant contributions to improving their communities.”
Mr. Garvey’s posthumous pardon is among the most high profile in the latest round. Civil rights leaders and lawmakers have long called his criminal conviction unjust and argued that he was targeted for his civil rights leadership.
In its announcement, the White House highlighted his contributions, including creating the Black Star Line, the first Black-owned shipping line and method of international travel, and founding the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture.
The White House also cited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday will be observed on Monday, describing Mr. Garvey, who died in 1940, as “the first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement.”
Among those to receive pardons, which wipe records clean of convictions, is Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate who was previously convicted of a nonviolent drug offense and sentenced to 17 years in prison in 1998; Ravi Ragbir, a well-known advocate for immigrants who was convicted of a nonviolent offense in 2001; and Don Scott, a lawyer who served his sentence for a nonviolent drug offense and went on to be elected to the Virginia legislature in 2019, and became the first Black speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates last year.
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Erica L. Green
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