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Tolbert, a member of one of the most influential and affluent Americo-Liberians families, appointed his brothers and cousins to key government positions.Tolbert abandoned Tubman’s pro-West foreign policy, establishing diplomatic relations with communist nations like the Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China, Cuba, and several Eastern Bloc countries. William Richard Tolbert Jr. was the twentieth president of Liberia from 1971 to 1980, when he was killed in a coup led by then Liberian Army Sergeant Samuel Doe.

Nine years later in 1952, Tolbert was elected vice president to President William Tubman and served in that position until he became president after Tubman death in 1971.Tolbert was born in Bensonville, Montserrado County, Liberia, on May 13, 1913, the grandson of a former American slave from Charleston, South Carolina, who immigrated to Liberia in the Liberia Exodus of 1878.

Most of the Tolbert cabinet members were tried and sentenced to death.

The group entered the president palace and killed Tolbert whose body was dumped in a mass grave together with other victims of the coup.

Tolbert was trained as a civil servant when he entered Liberia’s House of Representatives in 1943 for the True Whig Party which was the only established political party in the country. The Progressive Alliance of Liberia called for a peaceful demonstration in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, to protest the proposed price increased.

Il fut aussi président de lOUA entre 1979 et 1980.

Ce coup d'État sanglant marque une rupture en mettant fin au règne des Libériens descendants d'Américains qui mènent les destinées du pays depuis son indépendance.

He married Victoria A. Hoff with whom he had eight children.Tolbert was a Baptist minister and the first African to serve as president of the Baptist World Alliance. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! Tolbert graduated from Liberia College and entered politics in the early 1940s. William Richard Tolbert, Jr. (13 mai 1913 12 avril 1980) était un homme politique libérien, président de la République du Libéria de 1971 à sa mort en 1980. Après neuf années au pouvoir, le président libérien William R. Tolbert est renversé par un groupe de militaires des Forces armées du Liberia, dirigés par Samuel K. Doe.

Only four Tolbert cabinet members survived the coup, including future president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. This article was most recently revised and updated by André Munro, Assistant Editor.

William Richard Tolbert Jr. was the twentieth president of Liberia from 1971 to 1980, when he was killed in a coup led by then Liberian Army Sergeant Samuel Doe.

Note that the change from unlimited four-year terms to one eight-year term was actually a Tubman amendment implemented by Tolbert. Tolbert’s father, William R. Tolbert Sr., had more than twenty children which made the Tolbert family one of the largest Americo-Liberian families in Liberia. Pasteur baptiste, il a été président de lAlliance baptiste mondiale de 1965 à 1970.

The military take-over was a bloody one, labeled ‘a revolution’ by the 18 enlisted men of the Armed Forces of Liberia who toppled the Government of William R. Tolbert. William Richard Tolbert Jr. Haynsworth, Clement Furman, Jr. gale. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox.

Tolbert was a minister of the Gospel and at one point he served as pastor of Zion Praise Baptist Church in Bensonville. BlackPast.org is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.

Tolbert was chairman of the Organization of African Unity from July 1979 until his assassination in April 1980.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.

The 66-year old president was savagely murdered by private soldier Harrison Pennoh, who later proved mentally unstable.