William R. Tolbert, Jr.

William Richard Tolbert, Jr.
20th President of Liberia
In office July 23, 1971 – April 12, 1980
Vice President	James Edward Greene (1972-1977) Bennie Dee Warner (1977–1980)
Preceded by	William V.S. Tubman
Succeeded by	Samuel Doe
Born	May 13, 1913(1913-05-13) Bensonville, Liberia
Died	April 12, 1980(1980-04-12) (aged 66) Monrovia, Liberia
Political party	True Whig
Religion	Baptist

William Richard Tolbert, Jr. (May 13, 1913– April 12, 1980) was the 20th President of Liberia from 1971 to 1980.

Trained as a civil servant, he entered the country's House of Representatives in 1955 for the True Whig Party, then the only legal party in the country. He was elected Vice president to William Tubman in 1951 and served in that position until Tubman's death in 1971.

Background

Tolbert was born in Bensonville, Liberia.^[1][2] An Americo-Liberian, he was the grandson of a freed American slave from Charleston, South Carolina who emigrated to Liberia in 1879.^[3][2] The Tolbert clan was one of the largest Americo-Liberian families in Liberia.^[4]

He attended Bensonville Elementary School, Crummell Hall Episcopalian High School, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Liberia in 1934.^[5] He married Victoria A. David.

A Baptist minister, in 1965 he became the first African to serve as president of the Baptist World Alliance.^[6][2]

Tolbert was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.^[7]

Presidency (1971-1980)

Following Tubman's death in 1971, his long-serving vice president, William R. Tolbert, Jr., assumed the presidency. To the outside world, this peaceful transition seemed to signal political stability in Liberia, remarkable in an Africa where political turmoil was the norm. However, Liberia was effectively a one-party state where civil liberties were limited and the judiciary and the legislative branches were subservient to the executive branch.^[8]

Attitude towards opposition and indigenous ethnic groups

Upon becoming president, Tolbert initiated some liberal reforms and allowed the creation of an opposition party, the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, the first opposition party since the Republican Party had collapsed nearly 100 years previously. Though reelected in 1975, his government was criticized sharply for failing to address the deep economic disparities between different sectors of the population, notably the Americo-Liberians, who had dominated the country since independence, and the various indigenous ethnic groups that constituted the majority of the population.

Because Tolbert was a member of one the most influential and affluent Americo-Liberian families, everything from cabinet appointments to economic policy was tainted with allegations of nepotism. However, Tolbert was also the second president to speak an indigenous language (after President Benson), and he promoted a program to bring more indigenous persons into the government. Unfortunately, this initiative lacked support within Tolbert's own administration, and while the indigenous majority felt the change was occurring too slowly, many Americo-Liberians felt it was too rapid.

Foreign policy

Abandoning Tubman's strong pro-West foreign policy, Tolbert adopted one which focused on promoting Liberia's political independence. To this end, he established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, Cuba, and several other Eastern Bloc countries, thus adopting a more nonaligned posture. Tolbert severed Liberia's ties with Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 and spoke out in favor of recognizing the national rights of the Palestinian people. However, Tolbert supported the United States on the Vietnam War, as had his predecessor, William Tubman. Tolbert was chairman of the Organisation of African Unity from July 1979 until he was killed in April 1980.

Economy

Tolbert and U.S. President Jimmy Carter (in car, left) in Monrovia

Throughout the seventies, the world price of rubber was depressed, putting pressure on the Liberian economy. Tolbert attempted to improve the economic and political climate by introducing many new changes. However, the challenges were immense; the majority of the population was poor, and lacked basic amenities such as access to safe water and electricity.

Tolbert brought a new approach to Liberian Government's relations with foreign companies. Companies such as Firestone, which had operated for years without being audited by the Government, were audited, and forced to pay millions of dollars in back taxes to the Liberian Government. Old concession agreements were renegotiated, and new concession agreements were negotiated with an emphasis on accountability of the private sector to the Liberian Government.

In May 1975, Liberia became a signatory to the treaty which established the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in order to create a common market in West Africa and promote regional economic integration and stability in 15 West African countries, with the intention that it would mirror the success of the European Common Market (now the EU).

By the late 1970s, Tolbert became increasingly open to overtures of economic assistance from Libya and Cuba. The Libyans were on the verge of starting work on a low-cost housing project in Monrovia when the project was halted by the 1980 coup d'état.

Return of a two-party system

Liberia had been a one-party system since 1877. However, in 1978, the country returned to a two-party system when the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, headed by Gabriel Baccus Matthews, became recognized as a legitimate opposition party.^[9]

Rice Riots

In early April 1979, Tolbert's minister of agriculture, Florence Chenoweth, proposed an increase in the subsidized price of rice from $22 per 100-pound bag to $26. Chenoweth asserted that the increase would serve as an added inducement for rice farmers to stay on the land and produce rice as both a subsistence crop and a cash crop instead of abandoning their farms for jobs in the cities or on the rubber plantations. However, political opponents criticized the proposal as self-aggrandizement, pointing out that Chenoweth and the Tolbert family operated large rice farms and would therefore realize a tidy profit from the proposed price increase.

The Progressive Alliance of Liberia called for a peaceful demonstration in Monrovia to protest the proposed price increase. On April 14 about 2,000 activists began what was planned as a peaceful march on the Executive Mansion. However, the protest march swelled dramatically when the protesters were joined enroute by more than 10,000 "back street boys" causing the march to quickly degenerate into a disorderly mob of riot and destruction. Widespread looting of retail stores and rice warehouses ensued with damage to private property estimated to have exceeded $40 million. Troops were called in to reinforce police units in the capital who were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the rioters. In 12 hours of violence in the city's streets, at least 40 civilians were killed, and more than 500 were injured. Hundreds more were arrested.^[10]

Tolbert's credibility was severely damaged by the Rice Riots.^[11]

Coup d'état

In March 1980, Tolbert had Gabriel Bacchus Matthews and the rest of the PPP leadership arrested on charges of treason. He also ordered the PPP to be banned.^[8]

In the early hours of April 12, 1980, 17 non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe launched a violent coup d'état; all of them were indigenous Liberians, (by whom standard). The group entered the Presidential palace and killed Tolbert. Tolbert's body was dumped into a mass grave together with 27 other victims of the coup. A crowd of angry Liberians gathered to shout insults and throw rocks at the bodies.^[12]

By the end of the month, most of the cabinet members of the Tolbert administration had been put on trial in a kangaroo court and sentenced to death. Many of them were publicly executed on April 22 at a beach near the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia. Only four Tolbert cabinet heads survived the coup and its aftermath, among them the Minister of Finance, future president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.^[13]

Theories on Tolbert’s death

Undisputedly, Tolbert was dead by the end of April 12, 1980, the day of the coup d’état.^[14] However, there are competing stories as to the time and manner of his death. It has been reported that Tolbert was killed and ‘disemboweled in his bed while he slept', by Samuel Doe.

On August 5, 2008, before a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Monrovia, former Justice Minister in the PRC government of Samuel Doe, Cllr. Chea Cheapoo alleged it was ‘not Samuel Doe, but a white, American CIA agent who shot and killed President Tolbert’.^[15] On August 6, 2008 before the same TRC, a former Foreign Minister of the mentioned PRC regime, Dr. Boima Fahnbulleh testified ‘the Americans did not support the coup led by Mr. Doe’^[16], thereby apparently contradicting Cheapoo the day before.

Private life

Some of Tolbert's children live in New York and Maryland. His brother Stephen A. Tolbert served as his finance minister in the government until his death on April 29, 1975, in a plane crash.^[17]

See also

• History of Liberia

References

Further reading

• see History of Liberia, further reading

External links

• see History of Liberia, external links

Presidents of Liberia Joseph J. Roberts • Stephen Allen Benson • Daniel Bashiel Warner • James Spriggs Payne • Edward J. Roye • James Skivring Smith • Joseph J. Roberts • James Spriggs Payne • Anthony W. Gardiner • Alfred Francis Russell • Hilary R. W. Johnson • Joseph James Cheeseman • William D. Coleman • Garretson W. Gibson • Arthur Barclay • Daniel Edward Howard • Charles D. B. King • Edwin Barclay • William Tubman • William R. Tolbert, Jr. • Samuel Doe • Amos Sawyer† • David D. Kpormakpor† • Wilton G. S. Sankawulo† • Ruth Perry† • Charles G. Taylor • Moses Blah • Gyude Bryant† • Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  † denotes non-presidential head of state

Vice Presidents of Liberia Stephen Allen Benson • Beverley Yates • James Priest • James S. Smith • Anthony Gardiner • Alfred F. Russell • William D. Coleman • J. J. Ross • J. J. Dossen • Samuel Alfred Ross • Henry Too Wesley • Allen Yancy • Clarence Simpson • William R. Tolbert, Jr. • James E. Greene • Bennie Dee Warner • Harry Moniba • Enoch Dogolea • Moses Blah • Joseph Boakai