President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey on Sunday, along with several other individuals, including a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform, and gun violence prevention. Garvey, who influenced civil rights leaders like Malcolm X, was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s, with supporters arguing that his conviction was politically motivated to silence his message of racial pride. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once praised Garvey for giving millions of Black people a sense of dignity and destiny.
Biden's pardons were framed as upholding the nation's values, emphasizing unity and redemption. The president has set a record for issuing the most individual pardons and commutations, including commuting almost 2,500 sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Notably, Biden also pardoned his son Hunter for gun and tax crimes.
