Biography
Jamaican-born Pan-Africanist leader who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the largest Black mass movement in U.S. history, and the Black Star Line shipping company. He was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 in a politically charged federal prosecution related to Black Star Line stock sales and sentenced to five years at Atlanta Penitentiary. President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927 and he was immediately deported to Jamaica, never returning to the United States.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. Jamaican-born founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1914) and Black Star Line steamship company (1919). From 1918 the UNIA was a primary target of J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation. Federal mail-fraud trial in New York May 18 - June 18, 1923 before Judge Julian W. Mack with Maxwell Mattuck as chief prosecutor. Garvey defended himself; convicted while three co-defendants were acquitted; sentenced to 5 years and $1,000 fine. Served 33 months at U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta before his sentence was commuted by President Calvin Coolidge in November 1927 and he was deported to Jamaica. Posthumously pardoned by President Biden 2025.
