Honorary
Consul to Atlanta, Vin Martin, has urged Jamaicans
in Atlanta to join the Government's effort in seeking
a pardon from the United States government for
National Hero, Marcus Garvey.
In
addressing an exhibition in honour of the country's
heroes on Sunday (Oct. 29) at the Hillside Presbyterian
Church Hall in Georgia, Mr. Martin said, "fellow
Jamaicans and friends, there is a joint and compelling
project to which the government of Jamaica would
like to enlist your support and activism. This
cause, simply put, is to ensure a pardon from
the United States government for Marcus Mosiah
Garvey, Jamaica's first National Hero."
"Garvey's
work", Mr. Martin said, "here in the
United States and elsewhere, as a philosopher,
mass-mobilizer for justice, and progenitor of
the Pan-African Movement, is recorded in the
annals of history.
Jamaica,
the land of his birth, has elevated him to the
lofty status of National Hero. Surely, this is
not a life that can be condemned or caricatured
as a simple criminal". He noted that Mr.
Garvey had spawned such great American and Pan-African
leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm
X, and Kwame Nkrumah.
Mr. Martin urged all Jamaicans to join the worthy cause in the search
for truth and justice as the government, along with members of the United
States Congress and the Congressional Black Caucus, moved forward for
a full pardon for Marcus Garvey.
The
United States government convicted Mr. Garvey
of mail fraud in 1923. Members of his family
and of the organisation he founded and led, the
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA),
have long lobbied for his name to be exonerated
and the effort has been joined by members of
the United States Congress and the Congressional
Black Caucus.
In
February 2005, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced
House Concurrent Resolution 57, calling on the
President to grant a posthumous pardon to Marcus
Garvey.
Prime
Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, earlier in the
year, instructed Foreign Affairs and Foreign
Trade Minister, Senator Anthony Hylton, to proceed
with dialogue between Jamaicans in the Diaspora
and Congressman Rangel, "to begin to make
some approach to the United States government
to have Marcus Garvey's name cleared once and
for all".
Meanwhile,
Mr. Martin commended the Atlanta Jamaican Association
for organising the event and the Jamaica Information
Service for providing the material on the National
Heroes.
Among
those in attendance were Allan Alberga, President
of the Atlanta Jamaican Association; Dr. Chris
Parker, Vice President of Integrity Children's
Fund; and Rev. Winston Lawson, Pastor of the
Hillside Presbyterian Church.
The
audience was treated to a number of cultural
items rendered by the Sugarcane Cultural group.
Derrick
A. Scott
JIS Washington
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