Marcus Garvey (Photo courtesy Britannica)
By Shaka Barak,
President of The Marcus Garvey Institute,
UNIA & ACL First Vice President Garvey/Nkrumah Memorial Progressive Division 429
Former UNIA & ACL Minister of Education, Former Third Assistant President General, Former Candidate for UNIA & ACL President General, Graduate of the Course of African Philosophy, Lead Facilitator of Garveyism Education at the Marcus Garvey Drillers Foundation Schools in Nigeria, Co-facilitator on the History of the UNIA & ACL
The Honorable Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (Born November 20, 1942), the forty-six President of the United States of America, on January 19, 2025, Posthumously Pardons the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey (Born August 17, 1887, Died June 10, 1940).
He gave deserving posthumous justice for the Jamaican-born founder and first elected President General (August 1920) of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA & ACL founded July 20, 1914) with this pardon.
The first reason he deserved a Pardon was that for twenty-eight years, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey served as an honest, truthful, selfless, elected, not self-appointed, leader of the UNIA and ACL.
Secondly, the UNIA & ACL has the highest beneficent values as a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institutional, constructive and expansive society” (UNIA & ACL Constitutions Preamble), believing in the brotherhood and sisterhood of men and women and the “Fatherhood of God.”
Thirdly, his work worldwide, guiding Africans and People of African descent into a confraternity of 400 million, now includes 1.7 billion people who still need his teachings to inspire them. He was not a man of hate but dedicated to promoting pride, love, and nationhood. This led to the first and largest mass movement of Black people in the United States, earning him the title “Father of Black Nationalism” for centuries to come.
He organized six million Black people into the UNIA & ACL under the motto of “One God, One Aim, One Destiny” before he was wrongly imprisoned, which is more than the 15th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (Born February 12, 1809, Died April 15, 1865) emancipated from enslavement with his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863, and the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Encouraging President Joe Biden to sign this Pardon, less than a week before he left office, were many known and unknown men and women who are among those who, for over 40 years, have campaigned, wrote research papers, circulated petitions and marched on the streets in major cities of the United States to prove his innocence and earn his Pardon.
I will start with my mentor, the Antigua born, Dr. Charles L. James (Born April 26, 1905, Died August 16, 1990), the highest graduate of the first class of the ‘Course of African Philosophy’ taught directly by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey in 1937.
In 1947, Dr. James co-founded the Isaiah Morter Division 401. Then, in 1974, he formed another Division of the UNIA & ACL in Chicago called the Garvey/Nkrumah Memorial Progressive Division 429, where he served as President and I as his student of African Philosophy, until his last days.
I met him in 1975, shortly before he succeeded President General Thomas W. Harvey, and then went on to serve as president general from 1978 until his passing at age eighty-five in 1990.
As the Editor of the ‘Garvey’s Voice’ newspaper published in Chicago, Mr. James replicated the ‘Negro World’ and the ‘Black Man Magazine’ once published by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. He put regular reports in the paper that mentioned all efforts towards the exoneration and pardon of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and his philosophy.
The ‘Garvey’s Voice‘ reported how Senator Jesse Helms (born Oct. 18, 1921, died July 4, 2008) wrote about connecting the call for a Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday with a Pardon for the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey (Amendment number 2339). Around October 18, 1983, Helms wrote, “Among the many things that were done in connection with the King debate, I submitted an amendment, which unfortunately was rejected to posthumously recommend granting a pardon to Marcus Garvey.”
Excerpts from the Congressional record show Senator Helms for whatever reason, writing in section 3. – “Since Marcus Garvey is known as the Father of Black Nationalism; and Since Marcus Garvey was a major leader in the development in the United States of Black consciousness; and Since the conviction of Marcus Garvey in 1923 occurred in an atmosphere charged with emotionalism and publicity; and Since the excessiveness of the sentence was recognized by President Coolidge in 1927 in commuting that sentence; “Therefore, let it be stated that it is the sense of Congress that the President should remove this cloud over the reputation of Marcus Garvey by granting a full pardon of any crimes of which he may have been convicted.”
That was followed by John Conyers and Congressman Charles Rangel submitting a resolution for the exoneration of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
The City Commission of the City of Lauderhill submitted a resolution for his [Marcus Garvey] pardon/exoneration. The Court of Common Council of the city of Hartford submitted a resolution for his pardon/exoneration. The youngest son, Dr. Julius Garvey, a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon, organized the Justice4Garvey (there is a book published by the same name) movement around 2016 aimed at getting his father posthumously exonerated while also keeping intact the unwavering pride of the Garvey name.
Had this full and unconditional pardon taken place while the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey lived, when it should have, then as a second-generation student of the ‘Course of African Philosophy, I can imagine:
Four hundred million Africans and people of African descent would be crying tears of joy; at over 1400 Liberty Halls filled with Division and Chapter members of the UNIA & ACL worldwide waving their red, black and green flags; Church-bells would be heard ringing from every African Orthodox Church and Cathedral in every country; a Twenty-One-Gun Salute often reserved for heads of state by the Universal African Legions firing canons in cities with large African populations; out of universal respect, every private and public school, academy, college and university housing black youth would be closed; the next business day of the week January 20th would be treated like a national holiday with parades in every major city; and his loyal and faithful 2nd wife Amy Jacques Garvey and their two little boys, Marcus Garvey lll, and Julius Winston Garvey would be ushered into a waiting motorcade driven by the women of the Universal African Motor Corps.
Lastly, the two sons, the late Hon. Marcus Garvey Jr., UNIA & ACL President General, and the youngest son, Dr. Julius Winston Garvey, have never stopped trying to gain a Pardon for their father.
Likewise, hats off to U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clark (D-NY) for all the efforts with House Resolution 148 and that she has made and will make along with Dr. Julius Garvey to get an exoneration for the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. As momentum continues to grow with more and more desiring to clear his father’s name, Dr. Garvey counts on U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke and the rest of us to continue in this noble work with him.
With the tint of criminality lifted off of him by the Pardon from the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Jamaica, where he was also once falsely arrested, showing in both cases he was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned, a new course and direction will produce a different reality to what we see today.
First, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s second generation of students of the Course of African Philosophy taught by students from 1937 will be reminded of what he said about his mission from the ‘High God’ and look in the Holy Bible, Matthew Chapter 28: 19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I can imagine the preparations for an International Convention in Africa by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s students and grandchildren being as great and broadly participated in as those at the first International convention in 1920.
We will have to put together a $2,000,000,000 budget to launch the program of African Redemption, African Unification and the fulfilling of the slogan, “Africa For The Africans, Those At Home And those Abroad.” Our UNIA & ACL membership will have to rise to 200 million members working in 20,000 UNIA & ACL Divisions in the next 10 years, headed by men and women who embrace unadulterated Garveyism.
A special thanks goes out to some of those who fought for the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s pardon and exoneration, such as Geoffrey Philp, I Jabulani Tafari, Attallah Shabazz, Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan, Priest Dougie, Miguel Murphy, Yaw Frederick L. Davis, Jean M. Garvey, Kwesi Mfume, Jamaal Abdul-Alim, His Majesty, De Wheno Aholu Menu-Toyi, Babatunde Olaide-Mesewaku, Mwariama Kamau, Justin Hansford, Ras Don Rico, Dr. Ron Daniels and Reverend Rita McDonald.
