Marcus Garvey was granted a posthumous pardon by former President Joe Biden on his last full day in office, January 19. The late Jamaican-born activist, who was a prominent proponent of Black nationalism,

Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican civil rights activist, the founding father of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and an owner of the Black Star Line shipping company.

Successive governments of Jamaica had called for Garvey to be pardoned for 40 years, making the first appeal to Ronald Reagan and the last to Biden. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Garvey’s descendants, Jamaican immigrants and Black activists joined the call for a posthumous pardon.

Julius Garvey receives long-awaited pardon for his father Marcus Garvey, a Black nationalist and activist. President Biden's last-minute action clears his name.

As one of his last acts in office, President Joe Biden issued a posthumous pardon for Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and generations of civil rights leaders. Advocates and congressional leaders had pushed for Biden to pardon Garvey for years,

"Garvey’s life was dedicated to [a] vision of justice larger than any single race or nation. His wrongful conviction [is] a reflection of the work that remains before us.”

The widespread favorable media response to the pardon speaks to the enduring usefulness of Garvey’s brand of identity politics to the powers that be.

In this August 1922 file photo, Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform ... the increasingly popular leader who spoke of racial pride. After Garvey was convicted, he was deported to Jamaica, where he was born. He died in 1940. The Rev. Martin Luther ...

In one of his final acts in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, whose advocacy for Black nationalism and self-reliance left an indelible mark on leaders like Malcolm X and movements across the Black diaspora.

It's not clear whether Biden, who leaves office Monday, will pardon people who have been criticized or threatened by President-elect Donald Trump.

America is a country,” Pres. Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon alongside four others, “built on the promise of second chances.”

President Biden on Sunday pardoned Marcus Garvey, one of the first Black civil rights leaders, more than 80 years after Garvey’s death.