New York, New York - On what would have been Marcus Mosiah Garvey's 137th birthday, New York lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to grant a posthumous pardon for the wrongfully convicted Pan-Africanist leader.

"We have concluded, along with numerous legal scholars, elected officials, and other prominent leaders, that the case of Marcus Mosiah Garvey was conducted in bad faith. A presidential pardon would reaffirm the American commitment to a criminal justice system that guarantees de facto equity under rule of law," a coalition of 31 New York State legislators wrote to the White House on Saturday.

"Marcus Garvey deserves full justice by the American legal system. He has fought to empower peoples of African descent and worked to build communities through economic independence. Pardoning Marcus Garvey would honor his work for the Black community and remove the unjust stain on his legacy."

Born in Jamaica in 1887, Garvey was convicted on trumped-up mail fraud charges in 1923 while he was living in New York – a move many saw as an attempt to undermine his efforts toward Black liberation. He was subsequently deported from the country and never allowed to return.

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Members of Garvey's family – some of whom still live in New York – have been fighting for decades for the US government to officially clear his name. Their demand is echoed in a congressional resolution introduced by Representative Yvette Clarke calling for Garvey's exoneration.

"Marcus Garvey's visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to the empowerment of Black people have inspired generations. It is our duty to clear his name of the injustice that sought to silence him," New York State Senator James Sanders Jr. of Queens said in a statement.

"By granting this pardon, President Biden has the chance to affirm our nation's commitment to justice and acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Marcus Garvey," he added.

Sanders – who sponsored the bill to establish New York's recently inaugurated reparations commission – announced he is introducing a resolution in the State Senate to commemorate Garvey's birthday.

Honored as Jamaica's first national hero, Marcus Garvey is credited with setting the foundation for the Civil Rights and Black Nationalism movements. Racial justice advocates have also cited him as a key figure in the evolution of the modern-day reparations movement.

A cornerstone of Garvey's philosophy was the belief that people of African descent could achieve their own liberation through economic self-reliance. To that end, he established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914 and moved to New York in 1916 in order to open a branch in Harlem. By 1921, the organization had over 900 branches in 40 countries.

Through the UNIA, Garvey launched the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation in 1919 to open avenues of trade and immigration for people of African descent around the world. The project depended largely on donations from everyday people who saw the shipping company as an investment in their own freedom.

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In 1920, the UNIA held the First International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World in New York with around 2,000 delegates from 22 countries. They adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, which outlined the fundamental rights of people of African descent and took on the red, black, and green colors to symbolize African liberation.

Threatened by Garvey's popularity, J. Edgar Hoover, then head of the FBI's Radical Division, circulated a memo in 1919 making clear his intention to target the UNIA founder. There was "unfortunately" no evidence Garvey had committed any crime, the letter said, but Hoover suggested looking into the Black Star Line for possible fraud.

Hoover hired the first Black FBI agents to infiltrate Garvey's organization and dig up dirt on the internationalist hero. Garvey was then charged and convicted of mail fraud, allegations widely recognized to have been falsified.

Despite the blatant attempt to vilify and undermine him, Garvey's legacy has lived on, inspiring Pan-Africanist and anti-colonial movements in the US and around the world.