Culture Minister Olivia Grange says United States President Joe Biden did “the right and honourable thing” when he used his clemency power to posthumously pardon National Hero Marcus Garvey.

A release from the White House said Marcus Garvey was a renowned civil rights and human rights leader who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years in prison.

It noted that then United States President Calvin Coolidge commuted the sentence in 1927.

Ms. Grange says President Biden’s historic pardon this morning is a most significant step in a process that must continue until the national hero is exonerated.

Ms. Grange says, “The trial and conviction were meant to tarnish Garvey’s image and diminish his global movement.”

She noted that in 2018, the Jamaican Houses of Parliament passed the National Heroes and Other Freedom Fighters (Absolution from Criminal Liability in Respect of Specified Acts) Act, which cleared the records of national heroes, including Marcus Garvey.

Ms. Grange says the decision of President Biden “removes a stain against one of the greatest Jamaicans, a Jamaican national hero, and a hero for humanity.”

The Minister says the “Government will continue to work with the Garvey family and all the stakeholders, to push for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey.”

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Opposition Leader Mark Golding and Pan-Africanists, including Bert Samuels have welcomed the news.