PM Takes on Challenge to Clear Marcus Garvey’s Name

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has taken on the challenge of having National Hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s name cleared of the charge of mail fraud by the United States Government.
She has instructed Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Senator Anthony Hylton, to proceed with dialogue between Jamaicans in the Diaspora and United States Congressman, Charles Rangel, “to begin to make some approach to the United States government to have Marcus Garvey’s name cleared once and for all”.
The Prime Minister gave the details of her instructions during her address at an editorial board meeting at Carib News in New York on August 11.
Mrs. Simpson Miller’s action comes on the heels of the commemoration of the 119th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey on August 17. The National Hero is remembered for his struggles for racial equality throughout the world.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister called on Jamaicans in the Diaspora to join the movement already taken up by the US Congress for a full pardon of Marcus Garvey.
The National Hero was convicted in 1923 by the United States government of mail fraud and was deported to Jamaica in 1927, despite millions of signatures petitioning for his full pardon, including the signatures of 9 of the 12 jurors who had convicted him.
The movement for the pardon has been on-going, after it was started by members of his family and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), an organisation he founded.
This movement to pardon Mr. Garvey has been joined by members of the US Congress, led by Congressman Rangel and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus.