On his last day in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s.

America is a country,” Pres. Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon alongside four others, “built on the promise of second chances.”

Civil rights advocates and lawmakers have long said that Mr. Garvey’s 1923 conviction for mail fraud was unjust, arguing that he was targeted for his work.

Mr. Biden's pardons in recent days come after the president made the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history in December by commuting the sentences of around 1,500 people and pardoning nearly 40 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Earlier that month, he also issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.

As his presidency winds to a close, President Biden issued a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey, a notable Black nationalist who inspired figures like Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, and later generations of Black Panther Party activists.

This historic pardon culminates a decades-long fight by Marcus Garvey’s descendants and supporters to right the wrongs of a what many regarded as a politically motivated conviction.

Congressional leaders had pushed for Biden to pardon Garvey, with supporters arguing that Garvey’s conviction was politically motivated and an effort to silence the increasingly popular leader who spoke of racial pride.

Also receiving pardons were advocates for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform and gun violence prevention.

Michelle West waited 32 years. Convicted in 1994 of nonviolent drug offenses, she was ordered to federal prison for two life sentences, plus an additional 50 years. On Sunday, former President Joe Biden commuted her sentence,

In one of his final acts in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, whose advocacy for Black nationalism

In one of his final acts in office, President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, whose advocacy for Black nationalism and self-reliance left an indelible mark on leaders like Malcolm X and movements across the Black diaspora.