02/01/2025
KUYA!!! One of Jamaica Brew Festival’s own authors, Lynda Edwards, is credited in today’s Washington Post article along with her brother and her cousin, Michael Ashenheim, for writing a letter that helped influence President Biden’s posthumous pardon of Marcus Garvey!
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The article, dated February 1, 2025, chronicles a century of efforts to clear Marcus Garvey’s name before revealing the key breakthrough that finally secured his pardon. Here’s a summary of the part of the article that explains the final impetus for the recent pardon:
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After decades of advocacy, the breakthrough came when Howard law professor Justin Hansford learned antisemitism concerns were blocking Garvey’s pardon. Lynda Edwards, her brother, and Michael Ashenheim, descendants of Garvey’s Jewish friend and attorney Lewis Ashenheim, wrote an urgent letter documenting Garvey’s support of the Jewish community and how Lewis Ashenheim had successfully defended him in Jamaica’s Supreme Court, leading to a lifelong friendship. This letter, written January 6, 2025, helped secure Biden’s approval of the posthumous pardon.
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Lynda Edwards is currently working on a screenplay about the friendship that developed between Marcus Garvey and his attorney Lewis Ashenheim during Garvey’s Supreme Court case in Jamaica. To learn more about Lynda, check out her Facebook account, Lynda Edwards.
