President Biden pardoned five activists and officials on Sunday, including a posthumous pardon for civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, who mobilized the black nationalist movement and was convicted of mail fraud in 1923.
Mr. Biden also commuted the sentences of two other people who are serving sentences for crimes they committed in the 1990s and would keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives. The two individuals, whose petitions enjoy overwhelming support from civil rights activists, will be released next month, Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden, who has granted more individual pardons and commutations than any other president, said clemency recipients had “demonstrated remorse, rehabilitation and redemption” and “each made a significant contribution to the ‘improvement of its community’.
Mr. Garvey’s posthumous pardon is among the most high-profile of the last cycle. Civil rights leaders and lawmakers have long called his criminal conviction unfair and argued he was targeted because of his civil rights leadership.
In its announcement, the White House highlighted his contributions, including the creation of the Black Star Line, the first black-owned shipping line and method of international travel, and the founding of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated the African history and culture.
The White House also cited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday will be celebrated 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 a pardon, which will expunge conviction records, is Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate who was previously convicted of a nonviolent drug offense and sentenced to 17 years from prison in 1998; Ravi Ragbir, a well-known immigrant advocate who was convicted of a nonviolent offense in 2001; and Don Scott, an attorney who served time for a nonviolent drug offense and was subsequently elected to the Virginia Legislature in 2019, and became the first Black Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates l ‘last year.
