KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, has joined the call for United States President Barack Obama to grant a posthumous pardon to Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, for his 1923 mail fraud conviction in the US.

“Marcus Garvey was the victim of trumped up charges orchestrated by the late J Edgar Hoover, the famously anti-black director of the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” said Sir Hilary in a statement on Saturday.

“We are today calling on President Obama, himself the victim of racist campaigns, to de-legitimise his presidency, to exonerate Garvey before he leaves office. It is the right and proper thing to do.”

Sir Hilary’s call comes as the Caribbean and the world observes the United Nations’ declared “Decade for People of African Descent”.

“Garvey’s call for the upliftment of all Caribbean citizens through education and political engagement constitutes a critical part of the ideological and philosophical currents that gave birth to the University of the West Indies almost 70 years ago,” Sir Hilary said. “UWI’s mission and mandate are manifestations of Garvey’s struggles for quality education for the masses of Caribbean peoples, for self-respect, self-determination and cultural awareness in our region.”

A global petition campaign demanding that Garvey’s federal record be expunged has generated tens of thousands of signatures.

The campaign is supported, among others, by the Jamaican Government, the Caribbean Reparations Commission, the New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century, and by members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the US House of Representatives.

The campaign has intensified in the US, with supporters being urged to visit justice4garvey.org to sign the petition.

A letter circulated by the Jamaica Embassy in the US in September noted to members of the Caribbean Diaspora that “there have been several efforts over the years” seeking Garvey’s exoneration.

The letter states that the petition is “currently also being led by the Garvey family, spearheaded by New York surgeon Dr Julius Garvey, son of the late National Hero, aimed at securing 100,000 signatures.

On September 6, Dr Garvey presented his case for justice for his father to the Caricom (Caribbean Community) Caucus of Ambassadors and embassy staff in Washington.

The meeting, arranged by Dr Goulda Downer, chair of the Washington-based Caribbean-American Political Action (C-PAC), was held at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS).

During the meeting, Dr Garvey said the group learned first-hand about the Garvey family’s campaign to seek justice for their father “through a posthumous presidential pardon and how the Caribbean, through our shared history as a region, can play a critical leadership role in this effort.

“The appeal for this pardon is on the grounds that Marcus Garvey was unjustly prosecuted,” Dr Garvey said. “Garvey’s charges and conviction effectively ended his political movement and eventually led to his deportation to Jamaica, his country of birth. The family, 93 years later, now seeks justice for Marcus Garvey with their campaign to have his charges exonerated.”

Dr Garvey said the Garvey’s legal team is asserting that Marcus Garvey’s conviction was “motivated by a desire on the part of the [US] federal government to discredit, disrupt and destroy Garvey’s civil rights movement”.

The legal team, according to Dr Garvey, said Marcus Garvey’s conviction was “executed through court surveillance and deception, with undercover agents posing as Garvey supporters”, and Garvey’s conviction was “aided by judicial proceedings that have been condemned as factually unsound and politically, and racially motivated”.

Born on August 17, 1887, in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Garvey was an orator for the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Communities League.

Garvey, who was self-educated, was dedicated to promoting African-Americans and resettlement in Africa and in the United States, he launched several businesses to promote a separate black nation.

After he was convicted of mail fraud and deported back to Jamaica, he continued his work for Black repatriation to Africa.