Congress members urge Biden to exonerate Black civil rights leader Marcus Garvey [View all]
Last edited Wed Dec 25, 2024, 08:27 AM - Edit history (2)
Source: ABC News
December 24, 2024, 7:01 PM
A group of 21 House Democrats signed a letter urging the president to exonerate former civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, according to a statement sent by the lawmakers to ABC News on Monday. Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) led the panel of lawmakers -- mostly from the Congressional Black Caucus -- to exonerate Garvey on the heels of President Joe Biden's commutation of 37 sentences from federal death row on Monday.
Garvey, one of the earliest internationally-known Black civil rights leaders, was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and was given a five-year sentence, according to a letter sent to Biden from the Congress members, obtained by ABC News. President Calvin Coolidge pardoned Garvey two years into his sentence. Garvey was immediately deported to his birth country of Jamaica.
"Exonerating Mr. Garvey would honor his work for the Black community, remove the shadow of an unjust conviction, and further this administration's promise to advance racial justice," the lawmakers said in the letter to the president. "At a time when Black history faces the existential threat of erasure by radical state legislatures, a presidential pardon for Mr. Garvey would correct the historical record and restore the legacy of an American hero."
Congress members have been trying for decades to clear Garvey's name, according to the congress members. Congressman John Conyers led hearings in 1987 for the House Judiciary Committee on Garvey's exoneration. Congressman Charles Rangel introduced resolutions, highlighting alleged injustices against the former civil rights leader in 2004.
Jamaican born African American nationalist Marcus Garvey, circa, 1920.
Library of Congress
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/congress-members-urge-biden-exonerate-black-civil-rights/story?id=117087620
Link to LETTER - CLARKE LEADS LETTER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN URGING THE EXONERATION OF MARCUS GARVEY
Link to LETTER (PDF viewer) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vLj3OI15EAyZuBsUFe73Qu1RDfXqJM8I/view
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