Overview: Garvey’s pardon caps a 15-year effort by Garvey’s son, Julius Garvey, and Justin Hanford, a Howard University law professor. They argue J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI wanted Garvey, who advocated for Black liberation during the Jim Crow era, deported as an undesirable alien ‘ In his final days as president, Joe Biden has made history, issuing a record number of individual pardons, mostly to nonviolent drug offenders. On Sunday, with just hours left in his term, Biden reached back 100 years into the past, granting posthumous clemency to Marcus Garvey, the pioneering civil rights activist and Black nationalist.  Three others also received pardons, including Virginia House Speaker Don Scott — the first Black politician to hold the office. But Garvey’s is the highest-profile in Biden’s latest batch of pardons; civil rights leaders have long declared that Garvey’s 1923 conviction on mail fraud charges was unjust.   RELATED: Black Church PAC Seeks Pardon for Justice Fighter Ravi Ragbir In a statement, Biden said he’s making good on America’s reputation as a nation of second chances.  “As President, I have used my clemency power to make that promise a reality by issuing more individual pardons and commutations than any other President in U.S. history,” Biden said in a statement. “These clemency recipients have each made significant contributions to improving their communities.” Garvey’s pardon caps a 15-year effort by Garvey’s son, Julius Garvey, and Justin Hanford, a Howard University law professor. Their advocacy for Garvey — leader of the Back to Africa movement of the early 20th century and a hero in his native Jamaica — was bolstered by a group of 21 Democratic members of Congress who argued Garvey was targeted for his activism. He died in 1940. Former Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement  that Biden’s pardon corrects “a grave historical wrong. This is something that I and others have been working towards for many years.” Holder also noted Garvey’s work began at the height of the Jim Crow era.  Garvey “raised the hopes of Black people at a particularly difficult time in America, and was deemed a threat by the racist establishment – including J. Edgar Hoover,” Holder said. “The power of his words, actions and beliefs have endured and inspired generations that followed. As a Black man — as a proud American — I am deeply indebted to the work of this great man.”  In a statement Sunday, Hansford declared that Biden’s move affirms the case against Garvey was a “miscarriage of justice.” The pardon, he said, “uplifts Garvey’s unique contribution to the international cause of human rights, justice, and civil rights for all people worldwide.” Garvey was “the first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement,” Hansford said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “He was the first man on a mass scale and level to make the Negro feel he was somebody.”’ Historians say his ideology influenced groups such as the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. Born in Jamaica in 1887, Garvey was one of the most influential Black nationalist leaders of his time. After arriving in America as a young man, he became an early advocate for Pan-Africanism and human rights in the United States and worldwide.  The White House, in its announcement, highlighted Garvey’s contributions to civil rights for Black Americans through his Back to Africa movement, a campaign for Black Americans to emigrate to the Motherland. To get them there, Garvey created the Black Star Line, the first Black-owned shipping line and method of international travel.  Garvey also founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture — and was a precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that celebrated Black history and culture.  In the aftermath of World War I, the government launched a probe of Garvey’s activities with the goal of deporting him. In 1922, he was convicted and sent back to Jamaica on a mail fraud charge in connection with his fundraising for the Black Star Line and his organizational activities. President Calvin Coolidge later commuted his sentence.  Scott, the Virginia House speaker, was pardoned for a 1994 conviction on a non-violent drug offense. He served almost eight years in prison.  A Navy veteran and trial lawyer, Scott said in a statement that he was “deeply humbled” by Biden’s pardon “for a mistake I made in 1994 — one that changed the course of my life and taught me the true power of redemption.”  The post Biden Grants 11th-Hour Pardon to Marcus Garvey appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.