Wilmington, Delaware – On Sunday, January 19th the White House announced President Joseph R. Biden issued a pardon for the Pan African Leader and Jamaica’s National Hero Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
The Center for Global Africa, a Sixth Region think tank, partnered with Jamaican Diaspora Representatives to lead advocacy efforts in Delaware, President Biden’s home state. In continuity of the legacy of Garvey, the Center for Global Africa (CGA), headquartered in Delaware, with numerous global and Diaspora supporters, and Delaware Voices are proud to have contributed to Marcus Garvey’s historic pardon.
Marcus Garvey Institute
This is a particularly personal and momentous event for the Garvey family and the Marcus Garvey Institute for Human Development (MGIHD), founded by Marcus Garvey’s sole surviving son, Dr. Julius Garvey, whose petitioning for this pardon dates back to 1987 efforts from Congressmen John Conyers and Charles Rangel.
In June 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Jamaica. He laid a wreath at the Garvey Monument. In his speech, he said Garvey “was the first man of color to lead a mass movement. He gave millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. He helped the Negro feel he was somebody.”
According to Professor Ezrah Aharone, Founder & Chair of the CGA which led the Garvey campaign in Biden’s home state of Delaware, “This pardoning not only adds to Garvey’s historical legitimacy, it confirms the power of our collective advocacy as global Africans which must now be further leveraged into the self-reliance models that Garvey demonstrated.”
The $25 mail fraud charge and unfair 5-year sentence given to Marcus Garvey hurt a major movement. This movement included up to 6 million people across 4 continents. They supported his United Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).
African Union
Garvey’s ideas and actions influenced Africa’s independence movements. They also impacted African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Nelson Mandela. Among his visionary achievements, his Negro World newspaper had over 20,000 subscribers worldwide.
He created the Black Star Line of ships for international trade and passenger travel. His “Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World” is a great example. It serves as a model for the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), and other human rights documents.
Alicia Clark, The Garvey Legacy Film Project Producer, and Co-Chair of the Garvey Exoneration Delaware Campaign and Director of Global Partnerships for the Center for Global Africa stated “the King Holiday is a symbolic reminder of the tremendous work ahead to foster economic self-reliance and equity, foundational principles of Garvey, for People of African Descent throughout the Diaspora and Sixth Region.”
Lorraine Badley, Co-Chair of the Garvey Exoneration Delaware Campaign, Jamaican Diaspora Representative and Delaware Africa & Caribbean Affairs Commissioner said “this stain has finally been lifted and we are grateful his surviving son has lived to see the outcome”.
The pardon marks the end of a very long journey for justice. The Garvey Legacy Film Project will release the short film in February during Black History Month.
