America is a country,” Pres. Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon alongside four others, “built on the promise of second chances.”

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,

In one of his final acts in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, whose advocacy for Black nationalism and self-reliance left an indelible mark on leaders like Malcolm X and movements across the Black diaspora.

President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned civil rights leader and Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Garvey served four years in prison until President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927,

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.

Civil rights advocates and lawmakers have long said that Mr. Garvey’s 1923 conviction for mail fraud was unjust, arguing that he was targeted for his work.

It's not clear whether Biden, who leaves office Monday, will pardon people who have been criticized or threatened by President-elect Donald Trump.

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.

President Joe Biden announced a series of last-minute pardons before leaving office Monday, granting preemptive pardons to some family members and other GOP foes, as well as a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey,

In the spirit of Garvey himself, who said, “We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future,” I suggest that we, the African Diaspora, focus on building that future ourselves. Because clearly we cannot rely on symbolic gestures from politicians who have yet to prove they are truly on our side. Time to canonise our own saints.

Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, has welcomed the posthumous pardon of Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, by the outgoing United States (US) President Joe Biden.