President of the Saint Lucia-based Iyanola Council for the Advancement of Rastafari (ICAR), Aron Alexander, says President Joe Biden’s posthumous pardoning of Black nationalist Marcus Garvey “is not enough”.
He argued that a full exoneration is necessary to address the injustices faced by the civil rights icon.
Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the Black Star Line, the first Black-owned shipping line and method of international travel, was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years in prison. Decades of lobbying by Black activists in the US and Jamaica culminated in Biden issuing the pardon, on Sunday, during his final executive orders as president, acknowledging Garvey’s contributions to civil and human rights.
However, Alexander said the pardon falls short of justice.
“The question we ask now is a pardon from what or for what?” told St Lucia Times on Monday.
It is widely believed the charge against Garvey was politically motivated and an effort to silence the increasingly popular leader. The FBI had investigated Marcus Garvey and tried to deport him from the US.
“With this so-called pardon by Joe Biden, we believe that he should have called out J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI at the time who persecuted and insulted Garvey and played a significant role in framing him in an effort to destroy the work that he was doing to uplift the black race,” Alexander contended.
“It is our opinion, that the US President Joe Biden should have been more aware of the history as to what Marcus Garvey went through with the Ku Klux Klan and the FBI director and instead of a pardon we believe that he should have totally exonerated and vindicated the Right Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey,” insisted Alexander.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness hailed the pardon as a step toward full exoneration. He described it as a victory not only for Jamaica but also for justice and humanity.
“The removal of the unjust stain on Marcus Garvey’s name restores the full dignity and honour he has always deserved as a champion of freedom, empowerment, and equality,” he said in a statement following Biden’s announcement.
“As we celebrate today, let us recommit to carrying forward Garvey’s vision of unity, progress, and empowerment for all. May his life and work continue to inspire us to build a more just, united, and equitable world.”
Garvey’s teachings are followed by many Rastafarians worldwide, including in Saint Lucia.
Prophet Marcus Garvey