Marcus Garvey: To Pardon or Not- Is that the Question?

Among the last set of pardons issued by former President Joe Biden before he demitted office as the 46th president of the United States of America was one given to Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Many questioned the benefit of a pardon to one who died eighty-five years ago.

I want to put all of this in context.

Garvey was born at St. Ann’s Bay in the parish of St. Ann on Jamaica’s north coast on the 17th of August 1887. His Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was formed in Jamaica in 1914 and legally incorporated in the US in 1918. By 1920 he was able to convene The First International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World, attracting about 25,000 people to the opening ceremony. This was a time when Blacks in the United States and in other areas of the Diaspora, were victims of racism and suppression, especially in the USA where they were subjected even to lynchings and when the Ku Klux Khan, which in most of the 1920s had a membership of millions, was dominant. They made themselves felt by cross burnings and mass parades, dressed in colourful costumes, robes and masks in an effort not only to terrify but to hide their identities.

Garvey’s ability to mobilise blacks all over the world despite the state of global communication, stands out. In the 1920s his organisation had over 1,000 branches in 40 countries, including St. Vincent which, like others, were still colonies. The UNIA was engaged in a struggle for Blacks all over the world. The Negro World, the organisation’s medium for reaching followers, was banned, even in St. Vincent where it was quite popular. The political elites in these countries became alarmed with the message that was being preached and with the fact that it had such a far reach. The infamous J Edgar Hoover who was Director of the Bureau of Investigation, predecessor of the FBI which was founded in 1935, had been concerned that Garvey was very active among radicals in New York.

Concerns about the activities of Garvey and the UNIA came not only from the Conservative elements in the US but also from Black groups. Even W E B DuBois of the NAACP led very forceful attacks on Garvey’s Black Star Line. Opponents of Garvey started a ‘Garvey Must Go’ campaign. There was evidently some jealousy behind this, for on the scene was a Jamaican who was mobilising millions in the US and elsewhere, in a sense eclipsing American home-grown Black organisations. They considered Garvey a fraud and even appealed to the Federal Government to step up investigations into the Black Star Line. The Black Star Line was a Shipping Line meant to promote world-wide commerce among Blacks and to secure economic independence. It was also felt that it was meant to facilitate the transportation of Blacks back to Africa. Garvey did not seem to dedicate as much interest into the Shipping Line as he should have. This was a point made by our own Hugh Mulzac who captained one of Garvey’s ships. The authorities were out to get him and eventually arrested him on mail fraud charges in 1923. He was sent to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and spent almost three years before he was deported in 1927 back to Jamaica. It was always believed that they were trumped up charges about the fraudulent use of the mail.

The call for him to be exonerated has long been made. In 1987 under the leadership of John Conyers, the US House held hearings on Garvey’s exoneration. In 2004 Charles Rangel also led efforts to secure his exoneration. Other efforts were made in 2023 with the introduction of legislation in the US House of Representatives. The latest effort led by the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Yvette D Clarke, daughter of Jamaican immigrants finally got the nod from outgoing president, Joe Biden who offered Garvey a pardon. The call for exoneration had always made the case that Garvey’s conviction was based on gross prosecutorial and governmental misconduct and called for efforts to redress that misconduct. It must be recognised that a pardon is not a case of exoneration and does not imply innocence. It is clear that a president cannot exonerate but only give a pardon.

Exoneration, it would seem, has to go through the court. It is also not clear to me who is supposed to start the process, although based on past efforts it appears that this is a matter that could be taken up by Congress. Does the pardon granted by Biden prepare the way for later efforts at exoneration? Some people have been critical of Biden, stating that a pardon has little meaning now. But we also have to remember that former presidents simply avoided the issue.

Hopefully, other efforts to secure exoneration will be taken up, now that a pardon has been secured. It is however good that all of this is happening at a time when the UN has declared a Second International Decade for People of African Descent.

•  Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian