Biden pardons five people including late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey

In this August 1922 file photo, Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the “Provisional President of Africa” during a parade on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World along Lenox Avenue in the Harlem borough of New York.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned five people on Sunday (January 19, 2025), including the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, and commuted the sentences of two, the White House said in a statement.

Mr. Garvey, who died in 1940, was a civil rights leader who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, a sentence that was commuted by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927.

Human rights organisations credit Mr. Garvey as the first man to organise a mass movement among African Americans. The White House said he created Black Star Line shipping company and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture.

The other people pardoned include Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate who was convicted of a non-violent drug offense, immigration advocate Ravidath “Ravi” Ragbir, who was convicted of a non-violent offense in 2001, the White House said in a statement.

“Mr. Biden also pardoned Don Leonard Scott, who was convicted of a non-violent drug offense in 1994 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mr. Scott was elected to the Virginia state legislature in 2019 and became its first Black speaker last year,” the White House said.

Kemba Smith Pradia, a criminal justice advocate who was previously convicted of a non-violent drug offense in 1994, also was pardoned.

Mr. Biden commuted the sentences of two others who were sentenced in the 1990s and whom he credited with remarkable rehabilitation: Robin Peoples and Michelle West.