With his presidency coming to an end, Joe Biden has issued a wide variety of pardons, including a posthumous pardon for the radical black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.

As reported by Breitbart, Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in 1923. Originally from Jamaica, he had moved to the U.S. in 1916, where he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), an organization which declared that its goal would be to “establish a brotherhood among the black race, to promote a spirit of race pride, to reclaim the fallen and to assist in civilising the backward tribes of Africa.”

Garvey, who frequently dressed up in garish faux-military uniforms, was arrested in 1922, for trying to sell stocks for his shipping company, the Black Star Line, even though the business did not yet own any stocks. He was charged with mail fraud, convicted, and sentenced to five years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. His sentence was commuted in 1927 by President Calvin Coolidge, who then deported him back to Jamaica.

In his pardon announcement, Biden described Garvey as “a renowned civil rights and human rights leader.” The statement also cited Martin Luther King Jr., who had praised Garvey as “the first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement.” Without citing any examples, Biden claimed that “advocates and lawmakers praise [Garvey’s] global advocacy and impact,” and falsely claimed that there was “injustice underlying his criminal conviction.”

Biden’s flood of pardons began with a pardon for his own son Hunter, shortly after the 2024 election. Biden announced over 2,500 pardons on Friday for criminals convicted of drug-related offenses. On Sunday, in addition to the Garvey pardon, Biden also announced pardons for disgraced former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci.