(Black PR Wire) Wilmington, Delaware – On Sunday, January 19th the White House announced President Joseph R. Biden issued a pardon for the Pan African Leader and Jamaica’s National Hero Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.  The Center for Global Africa, a Sixth Region think tank, partnered with Jamaican Diaspora Representatives to lead advocacy efforts in Delaware, President Biden’s home state.  In continuity of the legacy of Garvey, the Center for Global Africa (CGA), headquartered in Delaware, with numerous global and Diaspora supporters, and Delaware Voices are proud to have contributed to Marcus Garvey’s historic pardon. 

This is a particularly personal and momentous event for the Garvey family and the Marcus Garvey Institute for Human Development (MGIHD), founded by Marcus Garvey’s sole surviving son, Dr. Julius Garvey, whose petitioning for this pardon dates back to 1987 efforts from Congressmen John Conyers and Charles Rangel.

During a visit to Jamaica in June 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. laid a wreath at the Garvey Monument and in his speech stated Garvey “was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny, and make the Negro feel he was somebody.” This pardon announcement comes during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday weekend of celebrations in the USA.  The civil rights advocacy of Dr. King was focused on economic and social justice.

According to Professor Ezrah Aharone, Founder & Chair of the CGA which led the Garvey campaign in Biden's home state of Delaware, "This pardoning not only adds to Garvey's historical legitimacy, it confirms the power of our collective advocacy as global Africans which must now be further leveraged into the self-reliance models that Garvey demonstrated." 

The frivolous $25 mail fraud charge and unjust 5-year sentence received by Marcus Garvey, essentially dismantled the largest organized movement of African people in history, remarkably encompassing up to 6 million people on 4 continents who supported his United Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).

Garvey’s principles and practices however influenced Africa’s political independence movements and African presidents that included Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Nelson Mandela.  Among his visionary achievements, his Negro World newspaper had over 20,000 subscribers worldwide. He created the Black Star Line of ships for international trade and passenger travel.  His “Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World” is a prototype of today’s African Union (AU), United Nations (UN), and other human rights and dignity proclamations.

Alicia Clark, The Garvey Legacy Film Project Producer, and Co-Chair of the Garvey Exoneration Delaware Campaign and Director of Global Partnerships for the Center for Global Africa stated “the King Holiday is a symbolic reminder of the tremendous work ahead to foster economic self-reliance and equity, foundational principles of Garvey, for People of African Descent throughout the Diaspora and Sixth Region.”

Lorraine Badley,  Co-Chair of the Garvey Exoneration Delaware Campaign, Jamaican Diaspora Representative and Delaware Africa & Caribbean Affairs Commissioner said “this stain has finally been lifted and we are grateful his surviving son has lived to see the outcome.”

The pardon marks the end of a very long journey for justice.  The Garvey Legacy Film Project will release the short film in February during Black History Month.

About The Center for Global Africa

The Center for Global Africa (CGA), www.centerforglobalafrica.com headquartered in Delaware is a Sixth Region Think Tank and Pan-HBCU academic think tank that works with satellite partners in Africa and throughout the Diaspora, and engages in research, consultancy, advocacy and enterprising practices for global African development. It is also the agency leading the effort regarding the exoneration of Marcus Garvey.

The Garvey Campaign, which is linked to the work of the Center, shares a vital partnership with the Garvey Institute, and ensures a continuum with the Center's work of socio-economic development and governance in Africa, the Caribbean and the Diaspora.

To find out more about The Center for Global Africa, contact Alicia Clark, Director of Global Partnerships, at (302) 540-0954.

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