Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, has welcomed the posthumous pardon of Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, by the outgoing United States (US) President Joe Biden.

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

President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned civil rights leader Marcus Garvey and four others in one of his last acts in office.

President Biden pardons Marcus Garvey, a pioneering civil rights activist, correcting a historical wrong and uplifting his contributions to civil rights.

President Biden pardoned political activist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey and four others on Sunday on his last day in office.

US President Joe Biden on Sunday posthumously pardoned Jamaica’s first National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the organizer of a mass black rights movement, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, who was convicted on charges largely believed to have been bogus in the United States in the 1920s.

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.

U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned five people on Sunday, including the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, and commuted the sentences of two, the White House said in a statement.

Joe Biden traveled to South Carolina on Sunday, his last full day as US president, where he urged Americans to "keep the faith in a better day to come" as he marked the national holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

Outgoing US president Biden has issued a final batch of pardons, as well as commuting two Americans' sentences.

Let us honour this legacy by working together towards a more equitable and inclusive world. Mark J Golding is Opposition leader and president of the People’s National Party.