By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
In a recent flurry of pardons and commutations that raised some eyebrows, President Joe Biden recently set a record – more than 1,500 – for the most sentences commuted by a U.S. president in a single day.
And while some Americans may have believed that former presidents Clinton or Obama stood atop the list for the percentage of acts of clemency granted in a president’s final fiscal year in office (Oct. 1 – Jan. 20), Biden, with 90-plus, currently has a slight lead over former president Trump at 84 percent. That’s according to data released by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice.
And in a statement on Dec. 12, Biden said he “will take more steps in the weeks ahead,” continuing a tradition established by his predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, who both issued a record number of acts of clemency during the final days and hours of their respective presidencies.
But while Biden just commuted nearly 1,500 sentences and pardoned 39 people, cleaning the records of those who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes – many of whom had completed their sentences – one name was not included on the president’s list: Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr.
In response, Garvey’s youngest and only surviving son, Dr. Julius Garvey, said while time is short before Biden leaves office, he, his family and tens of thousands of others remain “hopeful.”
“Over the years, the Garvey family, as well as other groups and individuals, have launched petition drives and organized email campaigns to the White House, in efforts that we estimate are well over 1 million signatures in support of our initiative to persuade the president to pardon Marcus Garvey,” said Dr. Garvey, 91, who along with his three children and grandchildren, continue to promote the legacy of the senior Garvey.
“I think the president should grant a posthumous pardon for my father for whom there was never any evidence of his culpability – just an empty envelope – in a series of trials where bias was clearly present in the courtroom. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been among our leading advocates and during Obama’s second term, we hoped he would grant our wishes. But he chose not to, saying that he would not issue a posthumous pardon for my father or anyone else.”
Dr. Garvey said his father, like other Black leaders such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were targeted by powerful leaders and organizations in America like J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI because of their commitment to freeing Africans and African Americans from the shackles of slavery and colonialism.
“They were men who never committed any offenses and yet paid the price because they stood up to those who have dominated and dehumanized our people for the past 500 years and sought to destroy us,” Dr. Garvey said. “As for my father, who sacrificed his life to elevate our people worldwide and was committed to reconstructing African culture and history, he was made into a criminal. But we’re not giving up because we know that the history that’s being taught today is a false history. No lie can last forever and as we are witnessing today, the very fabric of those lies and history are being pulled apart. So, we’ll continue to advocate for the pardon of my father until right prevails.”
New book on Marcus Garvey seeks to set the record straight
In recently published book, “Justice for Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind,” Dr. Garvey serves as the editor of a provocative collection of essays and narratives that illustrate the influence of Marcus Garvey on today’s social justice movements and provide greater insight on his life and work.
Since his death in 1940, efforts have increased to pardon Garvey, who many contend was wrongfully sentenced to prison by the U.S. government on trumped-up mail fraud charges before subsequently being deported.
The book, with a foreword by bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates, includes contributions from such seminal Black leaders like Paul Coates, founder/director of Black Classic Press; Goulda Downer, president of the Caribbean-American Political Action Committee (C-PAC); Justin Hansford, professor at Howard University School of Law; and Maulana Karenga, widely known as the creator of the holiday Kwanzaa.
“It would take more than one book to tell the complete story of my father’s life because he was so active and a leader not only in America, but in Africa and the Caribbean,” Dr. Garvey said. “He was an integral part of a worldwide freedom movement. And, like men who included Ghana’s first prime minister and president, Kwama Nkrumah, and Nelson Mandela, the first president and the first Black head of state in South Africa, he changed history.
“As Dr. King once said, ‘Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,’ so we understand that when our leaders cannot be stopped through character assassination or by being criminalized, there’s no other way to destroy who and what they stand for then by killing them. But you cannot suppress truth forever.”
Dr. Garvey said he hopes the truth about his father’s legacy will prevail, and he is hopeful it will influence the president to finally clear his father’s name
“President Biden has pardoned criminals, including his own son, we are still optimistic and continue to work toward him signing a posthumous pardon in the name of Marcus Garvey. That’s our focus today,” the junior Garvey said. “If he does not – well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
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