WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned five people on Sunday, including the late civil rights activist Marcus Garvey, and commuted the sentences of two others, the White House said in a statement.
Garvey, who died in 1940, was a civil rights leader who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years in prison, a sentence commuted in 1927 by President Calvin Coolidge.
Human rights organizations recognize Garvey as the first man to organize a mass movement among African Americans. The White House said he founded the shipping company Black Star Line and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture.
Others pardoned include Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate who was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense, and immigration advocate Ravidath “Ravi” Ragbir, who was convicted of a nonviolent felony in 2001, the White House said in a statement.
Biden also pardoned Don Leonard Scott, who was convicted of nonviolent drug possession in 1994 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Scott was elected to the Virginia state legislature in 2019 and became its first black speaker last year, the White House said.
Kemba Smith Pradia, a criminal justice advocate previously convicted of a nonviolent drug offense in 1994, was also pardoned.
Biden commuted the sentences of two people convicted in the 1990s who he credited with remarkable rehabilitation: Robin Peoples and Michelle West.
