Rep. Yvette Clarke Leads Push for Marcus Garvey’s Exoneration

Source : Washinton Informer
Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and 20 of her colleagues are urging President Joe Biden to exonerate Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the Pan-Africanist leader whose 1923 conviction for mail fraud has long been viewed as politically motivated.

In a letter to the president, the lawmakers described the case as rooted in prosecutorial misconduct designed to discredit Garvey and undermine his work for racial justice and empowerment.

“Exactly 101 years ago, Mr. Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in a case marred by prosecutorial and governmental misconduct,” the letter stated. “The charges against Mr. Garvey were not only fabricated but also targeted to criminalise, discredit and silence him as a civil rights leader.”

Born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, in 1887, Garvey was the youngest of 11 children. His father, Marcus Garvey Sr., a stonemason, steered him to achieve. Garvey described his father as “severe, firm, determined, bold and strong,” qualities that shaped his steadfastness. His father’s extensive library sparked Garvey’s love for reading and ideas.

At 14, Garvey became a printer’s apprentice and later moved to Kingston, where his involvement in union activities and participation in a 1907 printer’s strike ignited his passion for activism. He travelled through Central America as a newspaper editor, highlighting the exploitation of migrant workers, and studied at Birkbeck College in London, where he worked for the African Times and Orient Review, advocating for Pan-African nationalism.

In 1912, Garvey returned to Jamaica and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association to unite the African diaspora to “establish a country and absolute government of their own.”