MINISTER of Youth, Sports and Culture Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange is to establish two committees in another effort to lobby the United States to exonerate National Hero Marcus Garvey from mail fraud.

Minister Grange recalled that former Prime Minister Edward Seaga had asked the late former US President Ronald Reagan to grant a full pardon to Garvey — Jamaica’s first national hero — on the 1923 charge, and that a resolution was brought to the US House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice from as far back as 1987.

“But sadly, the mission is not yet accomplished,” Grange lamented.

“I am committed to ensure that we accomplish that mission,” Grange said last Wednesday at the unveiling of a state-of-the-art museum case donated to Liberty Hall by telecommunications company Digicel to preserve the artefacts of Marcus Garvey. The unveiling commemorated International Museum Day.

Grange emphasised that it was time to make another move to have Garvey’s name cleared.

“It is time to clear Garvey’s name in America and right here on that sedition charge,” she stressed. “As the minister with responsibility for culture, I pledge to do all within my power to set the record straight and advance the discussions and movement to have the Rt Excellent Marcus Garvey’s name cleared.”

In an interview later with the Observer, Grange disclosed that one of the committees will be headed by attorney Tom Tavares-Finson and will explore the matter from a local perspective.

Professor Verene Shepherd, who heads the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of the West Indies, Mona, will preside over the other committee that will examine the issue as it relates to the United States. Shepherd’s committee will be supported by a team of US-based lawyers and Julius Garvey, son of the national hero.

“Julius Garvey has committed himself to working with the team in the United States,” Grange explained, noting that the other committee members will be named shortly.

In relation to the donation by Digicel, executive director of the Digicel Foundation Major General Robert Neish said that Liberty Hall fits well with the foundation’s objectives.

“This is historically important. It’s culturally important and it is all part of the legacy of Marcus Garvey. So these are all the things that the Digicel Foundation wants to do for Jamaica,” Neish said.

“The Digicel Foundation has its strength in developing and moulding and giving expression to communities. And so Marcus Garvey and the Friends of Marcus Garvey have a community here. There is a homework centre, so it’s part of education. And these are all things that the Digicel Foundation does. And so it fits in very well with what we do,” he added.