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

It's not clear whether Biden, who leaves office Monday, will pardon people who have been criticized or threatened by President-elect Donald Trump.

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

President Joe Biden posthumously pardoned civil rights leader and Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Garvey served four years in prison until President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927, after which Garvey was deported to Jamaica.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Also pardoned were a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform and gun violence prevention.

President Joe Biden pardoned five activists and public servants Sunday, including a posthumous grant of clemency to Civil Rights leader Marcus Garvey, who mobilized the Black nationalist movement and was convicted of mail fraud in 1923.

Joe Biden made history in criminal justice reform, granting five pardons, including a posthumous one for civil rights icon Marcus Garvey.