William Richard Tolbert, Jr. (May 13, 1913 – April 12, 1980) was 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.
Tolbert was born in Bensonville, Liberia. An Americo-Liberian, he was the gran...
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William Richard Tolbert, Jr. (May 13, 1913 – April 12, 1980) was 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.
Tolbert was born in Bensonville, Liberia. An Americo-Liberian, he was the grandson of a freed American slave from Charleston, South Carolina who emigrated to Liberia in 1879. The Tolbert clan was one of the largest Americo-Liberian families in Liberia.
He attended Bensonville Elementary School, Crummell Hall Episcopalian High School, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Liberia in 1934. He married Victoria A. David.
A Baptist minister, in 1965 he became the first African to serve as president of the Baptist World Alliance.
Tolbert was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
Following Tubman's death in...
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