President Obama granted clemency to 231 prisoners—the most individual acts of clemency granted in a single day by any president in U.S. history. According to the White House, Obama has now commuted more sentences than the last 11 presidents combined. But Obama has taken no action on several of the most high-profile [no you should say political prisoners] prisoners seeking pardons or clemency.
Marcus Garvey, a pioneering figure in the Black Freedom struggle in the early 20th century who inspired generations of civil rights activists around the world. In the 1920s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover targeted Garvey for his political activity as a leader of the Pan-African movement. Garvey was convicted in 1923 on a charge of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in jail. His charges and conviction effectively ended Garvey’s political movement and eventually led to his deportation back to Jamaica.
Dr. Julius Garvey talking:
we have placed before the president a petition for the posthumous pardon of my father. And it’s well documented in terms of the legal aspect of it, because that’s the foundation. The moral aspect of it is separate, as is the political aspect. But the legal aspect of it was prepared by a well-known law firm, Akin Gump Hauer. And they have spent almost two years, really, working on it and going through the case as it existed—I mean, there are thousands of pages, etc.—as well as the appeal, which was also denied. So, it’s a well-prepared document that shows that there was no evidence, that there was a prejudiced judge, there was perjury. The only evidence was an empty envelope, which was stamped with the Black Star Line on it, no writing, no evidence that it was handled in any way by Marcus Garvey. Nobody knew what was in it, because the person who presented the envelope couldn’t remember what was inside the envelope. And also, he was a perjured witness in that he was told by the prosecuting attorney to lie about the contents and whether he worked with the UNIA, etc.
My father formed the organization Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in 1914 in Jamaica, West Indies, came to the United States in 1916. And, of course, this was 1914-’18 war, the First World War, the so-called Great War. And there was a large movement of African Americans from the agricultural South coming to the North, because there were jobs that were available now in terms of the industrialization process to back up the war machinery. And many young, quote, “white men” had gone to war, so there were many jobs up North, so there was this migration. So, we had, you might say, Southern African Americans, who had been subjected to, you might say, the lack of Reconstruction, whether subjected to the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws and so on, coming up North and being able to be employed in the industrial process, and then, in a sense, asking themselves now, “Well, what is freedom? How do I manage my future? You know, I’ve been sharecropping. I’ve been subjected to Southern injustice. Here I am in the North, I mean, what is my dimension of freedom? You know, what are my citizenship rights? What are my human rights as a person?”
And my father, in a sense, had the answer, because he had been all over the world, and he had seen the conditions of African people in the Caribbean, on the continent and also now in the Americas. And his idea was really to unite African people around the world, because it was a process that had subjugated them. Now, this was 400 years of slavery and, you know, 50 or so years of colonialism. Colonialism, you know, started in 1885 with the Berlin Conference, where now Africa was simply invaded and dispensed to different European groups, who just took over and, you know, reduced populations to peonage. And, of course, post-slavery, you know, there was no assessment of the needs of African people who had been enslaved for such a long time. So there was no reparations for African people. The reparations was for the slaveowners. So, African people were destitute all around the world because of slavery, because of colonialism. And Marcus Garvey felt that—my dad felt that, you know, it was important to unite African people, because with that unity we will have some strength in terms of our resources, human and otherwise.
he was targeted by J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI as early as 1919. He called him a Negro agitator up in Harlem who was agitating for radical measures of uplifting African people. So he infiltrated my father’s organization. The first black FBI agent was hired at that point in time to infiltrate the organization, and there were many others. So, Hoover and the Justice Department were looking for some means to criminalize Marcus Garvey so that he could be deported, because he was an immigrant. He had filed his first papers, but they were keeping him from becoming a full citizen. Every time he left the country and so on, they wouldn’t grant him visas to come back in, etc., etc. He had an attempt on his life by someone who came into the Liberty Hall, shot three shots at him. Two sort of hit him, grazed him, one in his leg. That person ended up, quote, “committing suicide,” within 24 hours after he was arrested, in prison. So, you know, he said he wasn’t going to take the rap for himself.
So, there was a concerted effort, you know, by whomever, but we do know also of J. Edgar Hoover. And they were trying everything—the Mann Act, of course, you know, transporting a woman across the state line. The woman was my mother, his wife. Of course, she wasn’t my mother yet at that point in time, but she was his wife. They were looking at him for tax evasion, you know, and they were looking at him about the Black Star Line, which was his signature economic project to trade between Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. So, again, you know, the whole idea was a political trial to destroy him and, hence, destroy the movement.
Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, was an organization designed to unite all African people under one umbrella to push for our liberation as a people. We had gotten our freedom, so to speak, from physical slavery, but the psychological aspect of it was still evident, and also we were still marginalized in terms of our economic ability. So part of the UNIA platform was to develop an economic base among us as an African people. And that would be the foundation for everything else—educational, cultural, etc.
he left Jamaica early. First of all, he was a printer. He was very much used to the word. And his father had a significant library, at least for those days in terms of Afro-Jamaican peasantry—his father was a mason. And he traveled throughout the Caribbean, throughout Central America—Costa Rica, Panama. He worked on the Panama Canal. He worked on the railroad in Costa Rica. Then he traveled to Europe, in England, all over Europe, and then met many students. He worked for a magazine called African Times and Orient Review. The editor was somebody named Dusé Mohamed Ali, who was an Egyptian who had a great library in terms of African history and so on and so forth. So—but he learned a lot about Africa, you know, from that situation. He was a voracious reader. If you read his books, you’ll see him say that you should read, you know, every minute of the day. He, himself, read four hours a day. So, he was one of those sponge people who could soak up information. Again, if you read his speeches, you’ll see that his vision was really worldwide. So he saw the conditions of African people everywhere, and he was both analytic and then he could synthesize what he saw and what was needed.
And then, the crown that you might say, he read Booker T. Washington’s book, Up from Slavery. And that also impressed him in a way that—how African people could use that as a foundation, meaning education, industrial education, in particular, as a basis, because that was the actual foundation for economic development. So he corresponded with Booker T., came to the United States, even though Booker T. had died in 1915, but he came in 1916, went to Tuskegee, spoke to Dr. Moton, who was in charge there, and so on. So, his idea was to duplicate that in Jamaica and, you know, throughout the Caribbean, etc., etc.
He ended up traveling in the United States, and, on his own dime, he went through 38 states in one year, seeing the conditions in the South and so on, and, as we mentioned, the agricultural South, the industrial North, the conditions under which people lived.
This would have been, again, from 1916 to 1917. This was when he did that. And then, his plan was still to go back to Jamaica, although he established a branch of the UNIA in New York. But, again, the politics of the situation, every time he developed the organization to the extent where he thought he could leave, then there were communists and there were other people who were trying to take over the organization as a black organization. And he ended up being requested to stay. And he stayed, and that became the headquarters. So, that was when the movement took off here in the United States, because of those conditions that I mentioned. There were African Americans coming back from World War I who were being lynched in their uniforms. There was the riot in East St. Louis and so on.
– riot in East St. Louis in July of 1917, which became the scene of one of the bloodiest race riots in the 20th century. Mobs of whites set fire to the homes of black residents, beat, shot, lynched men, women and children. Marcus Garvey spoke out against the violence in an emergency meeting in Harlem, marking the expansion of his movement to include American race relations.
Six years later, in 1923, Julius Garvey, was convicted of mail fraud, targeted by J. Edgar Hoover. Some might be surprised to know J. Edgar Hoover went so far back.
my dad was targeted by J. Edgar Hoover, who was a young lad out of law school. And here he was in the Bureau of Investigation; it wasn’t yet the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And he was looking for a way to make a name for himself. And he was very, very active against, quote, “radicals”—communists, etc., etc. He put my father into that category and sought a way to criminalize him in some way. And as I mentioned, they thought about all kinds of things, in terms of the Mann Act, in terms of tax evasion. Whatever they thought would stick, they were trying to make a case.
So, they thought they could make a case with the Black Star Line, which was a major economic venture at that particular time. So, this was the charge that they brought up against him. Initially, they brought the charge against him, and then they realized that they couldn’t bring a charge against him, because it wasn’t a private company. So then they had to put three other guys from the UNIA up on the same conspiracy now to commit mail fraud. So, that was the charge. But, of course, the other guys were let go, and Marcus Garvey was the only one that ended up being charged and then convicted. As I mentioned, there was no evidence. There was an empty envelope. There was perjury. The judge should have recused himself. The prosecutor perjured himself, as well as the witness perjured himself, and so on. So, there are a myriad of things which, again, is well documented by the law firm Akin Gump, who has presented this petition to the president. He was convicted, and they wouldn’t even allow him bail. And he stayed in the Tombs prison for three months, and not allowing him bail. I mean, this was how destructive they were of him. They seized the books of the UNIA. They seized the books of the Black Star Line, etc. So business could not continue. So it was definitely a concerted effort to destroy Marcus Garvey and to destroy the organization that he had created.
Then there was an appeal. The appeal was turned down, despite the fact that the attorneys for my dad showed all the inconsistencies in the case. And the attorney, Armin Kohn, that represented my dad, he said, in his 25 years before the American Bar, he had never seen a case with such malicious political intent against anybody as the case against Marcus Garvey. He was imprisoned in Atlanta and spent a little more than two-and-a-half years there. And then, Calvin Coolidge, on the advice of his district attorney, because there was a lot of agitation for his release—I mean, there were marches. There were petitions. There were, you know, representations to different senators and so on and so forth. Churches would have a Garvey Sunday, where they would pray for Marcus Garvey, and so on and so forth. So there was significant agitation all along within the black community. And the attorney general went through the case and said, “You know what? This situation is untenable.” And I think also there was an election coming up and stuff like that. “Let’s commute the sentence, but then we’re going to deport him.” See, so that he could not then reconstitute the movement. And that’s exactly what they did. And the same thing, the deportation was a subterfuge, because his lawyer was not informed, you see? And the deportation really wasn’t correct. I mean, there was no legal reason for him to be deported, without him even having the ability to take care of his business and so on, conclude business. So, anyway, that happened, and then he was sent back to Jamaica.
Now, in Jamaica, he resumed his political efforts and the organization from there. But again, I mean, the whole thing was really not simply an American thing. I mean, the British government, the French government and the American government, they were all in collusion. They were exchanging information about Marcus Garvey, about the UNIA. And it got to a situation where mail that was coming to Marcus Garvey from the United States, mail from Marcus Garvey in Jamaica to the United States was being tampered with and would not be delivered.
That’s real mail fraud. It’s interesting. I never thought about it that way. But, you know, tampering with the U.S. mail, of course, it was done by the Justice Department or the mail department, whatever—you know, so courts that made it legal. But, of course, that restricted, you know, any means of communication, because mail was the major means of communication. It’s also restricted money from traveling from the United States, you know, from the members in the United States to support the organization now, because the headquarters were transferred to Kingston. So, you know, it was a concerted effort.
And then, in Jamaica, he started the first political party, the first labor movement. And part of the platform of the political party in Jamaica—it was the People’s Political Party—was that, you know, if judges misbehaved against the population, you know, they should be brought up on trial and sent back to England and so on and so forth. Well, of course, the Colonial Office said, “Oh, no, you can’t talk about judges like that. They represent the queen.” So he was—he was charged with contempt of court and given three months in jail for having that on a political platform, that judges, if they are dishonest, you know, should be accused as such and convicted. So, anyway, you know, so the whole process continued. As I said, it was a collusion, whether it was the British government, the American government, the French government or wherever.
And his newspapers, many, many places that they would not go. In the old days, there was Dahomey, and the penalty of having the Negro World in your possession was death. I mean, that’s how severe it was.
the newspaper. And, you know, Jomo Kenyatta tells the story of, in Kenya, when the Negro World would come, somebody would read it to a group of villagers, and they would memorize the stories and especially the editorial page of the Negro World and then run off into the different villages to carry the word, you know? So, but there was significant harassment all over.
the UNIA penetrated all over Africa, particularly South Africa. And it was present at the birth of the ANC, the African National Congress. It was, you know, an existing organization, and many West Indians were there. They had gone there as immigrants, or they had gone there as sailors and then stayed there. And so, there was that nucleus of Caribbean people who were there, and they formed the organization along with many other South Africans, so that the first all-colored people’s conference that took in South Africa was coordinated by the UNIA, among other groups. And the ideology of the UNIA was dominant in terms of it being a nationalist, if you will, ideology for the rights and freedoms of African people, so it was very, very significant. And, of course, you know, Nelson Mandela grew up in that. He was part of the Youth League and so on. And it’s interesting. I met Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Ndaba Mandela, and he told me how much his grandfather, you know, told him about the influence that Marcus Garvey had on him when he was growing up as a young man, in terms of black consciousness and, you know, the rights of African people within South Africa. So, Nelson Mandela was one of those that Marcus Garvey influenced, as well as people in South-West Africa, which is now, of course, Namibia.
The president—the previous president, he was, quote, “a disciple” of Marcus Garvey, very strong. And, you know, I had an opportunity recently to visit both South Africa and Namibia. And we gave a lecture, the Sobukwe lecture, which is an annual lecture, and the Steve Biko Foundation was the one that invited me, along with the Sobukwe Foundation. And, you know, Marcus Garvey is very well received in South Africa and, of course, as we know, Ghana and Nigeria and Kenya. Sam Nujoma, very influenced by Marcus Garvey.
– rivalry between Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois
to a large extent, Du Bois is revered by many people. And, you know, he certainly was an historian and, to some degree, a sociologist, but he didn’t have the vision of Marcus Garvey or the understanding in terms of world affairs, and his mindset was different. It was more of a colonial subject’s mindset. And what I mean by that, he propounded the philosophy of the talented tenth, and, you know, somehow the top 10 percent of Africans in America or wherever should be schooled in civilization, so to speak, and given certain privileges or whatever, and then that would trickle down to the mass of black people. My father was a bottom-up person, meaning that the mass of people had to be educated and lifted up, and they had to do it pretty much of on their own in terms of their validity and identity as human beings.
And plus the fact that, you know, Du Bois was no politician, and he didn’t really have a stable ideology, meaning that he was a communist at one time, a socialist another time. He was an integrationist at one time, being part of the NAACP in its early days and so on. He was kicked out of that. You know, he was branded as a communist, so I think his passport was taken away and so on. So, he went through all of these changes.
And at the time when, quote, they were “rivals,” you know, the NAACP was struggling to get less than a quarter of a million, you know, members; Marcus Garvey had 6 million members worldwide. So, this was part of, you know, I think, W.E.B. Du Bois’ angst. You know, he considered himself educated, with a Ph.D. and so on, and he considered Marcus Garvey not educated, because he didn’t have the label of, you know, a Western university, whereas, you know, my dad was so well read. And again, he was a visionary, so I don’t think there was any comparison. But you are right: W.E.B. Du Bois did change his tone and realized that Marcus Garvey was right. He ended up in Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah gave him a job there, yeah.
-what would it mean, that pardon?
But from way back in 1981, ’82, when Reagan came to office, the prime minister of Jamaica, Eddie Seaga, came up to Reagan. I think he was the first foreign dignitary that Reagan had at the White House. And he asked Reagan to expunge Marcus Garvey’s record. Of course, that was denied. And every prime minister of Jamaica has spoken to every president—you know, P.J. Patterson and so on and so forth. And also, the current prime minister, Holness, has expressed this desire. Portia Simpson did. President Obama was in Jamaica six months ago or whatever, and she asked him, you know, about that. So, that request has been made by all of the prime ministers of Jamaica.
In the Congress of the United States, going all the way back to 1987, which was the centenary year of my father’s birth, John Conyers had us down. He was head of the House Judiciary Committee. So there were a large number of us—John Henrik Clarke, myself, my brother, Tony Martin, Judith Stein and so on. We were down there giving testimony to the House Judiciary Committee of why Marcus Garvey should be exonerated, what his legacy was and so on and so forth. Well, it never really got out of the House Judiciary Committee. Congressman Rangel, later on, from about 2004, had House resolutions asking for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey. And again, you know, year after year after year, he has presented that to the Congress.
So, that kind of brings us up to date. You know, we’ve tried all of these measures, different people have, and we’ve worked with them. And we have a president now who, you know, his second term, you know, is ending office, and he has the privilege to be able to give posthumous pardons. So, this, in a sense, is, you might say, the only door left open to us. You know, from our perspective, “pardon” means that somebody has committed something, and you’re pardoning them, but we don’t think he has committed any crime. So, while we have to accept a pardon, we think it’s an exoneration, because the evidence, as presented to justify the pardon, shows that there was no crime and it was a political setup. So, we’re hoping that the president understands it from that perspective and that he will use the executive privilege within the last few weeks that are left, in terms of his office, to grant that pardon.
“When I am dead wrap the mantle of the Red, Black and Green around me, for in the new life I shall rise with God’s grace and blessing to lead the millions up the heights of triumph with the colors that you well know. Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.” – Marcus Garvey’s writings while he was in prison in Atlanta.
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Julius Garvey
son of Marcus Garvey. He is cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon who is leading the Justice4Garvey effort seeking a posthumous presidential pardon for his father, civil rights leader Marcus Garvey.
— source democracynow.org