CDB King and the Fernando Po Nightmare
Published: 14 October, 2005
The administration of President Charles Dunbar Burgess King (1920-30) was, arguably, one of the most eventful in the annals of the Republic of Liberia.
Was 'elected' (by Liberians/representatives of fighting parties, political parties and civil society during peace talks in in Ghana) to lead National Transitional Government of Liberia until democratic presidential election in October 2005.
Charles Taylor was born in Arthington, near Monrovia, on January 28, 1948. He was the third of 15 children of an Americo-Liberian father, Nelson Taylor. His mother, Zoe, was a Gola woman.
President Samuel K. Doe
Published: 16 September, 2005
Samuel Kanyon Doe was born on May 6, probably in 1951. He was born in Tuzon, a small town in Grand Gedeh County, in the Southeastern part of Liberia. His parents were poor and uneducated as were most rural Liberians, and they belonged to the Krahn tribe. Samuel Doe had only accomplished primary education when he became a career soldier, presumably because of lack of other job opportunities.
President William R. Tolbert, Jr.
Published: 16 September, 2005
William Richard Tolbert, Jr. was born in Bensonville, Montserrado County, on May 13, 1913. His grandfather originated from Charleston, North Carolina, U.S.A. and he and his family had arrived in Liberia in 1879. One of his four children, William R. Tolbert, Sr., had more than 20 children. Partly for this reason, the Tolbert family was one of the largest Americo-Liberian families.
William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman was born in Harper, Maryland County, Liberia, on November 29, 1895. He was President of Liberia from 1944 until his death in a London clinic on July 23, 1971. With 27 years in office he ruled the country longer than any other president before him – and since.
Charles Dunbar Burgess King was born in Monrovia on March 12, 1871 of Sierra Leonian parents. He studied law and started his career at the Supreme Court, later turned to the State Department. After the turn of the century he became Attorney-General with the rank of cabinet minister under President Arthur Barclay (1904 -12), and Secretary of State under President Daniel E. Howard (1912 - 20).
Illustrative for Liberia’s international profile in the early 1900s is King’s participation in the Peace Conference following the end of World War I. He also was among those who signed the Treaty of Versailles.
While attending the Peace Conference he was elected president (May, 1919). On January 1, 1920 he was inaugurated. King’s 10-year Administration is marked by some of the most historic events Liberia ever experienced.
William David Coleman
Published: 16 September, 2005
William David Coleman was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, USA, in 1842. He came to Liberia at the age of eleven, with his widowed mother and three more family members in 1853. They settled not far from Monrovia, in Clay-Ashland, in Montserrado County. Despite a poor youth - he even had to give up school because of lack of money –he rose to the highest position in the country. He thus followed the footsteps of J.J. Roberts, Liberia’s first President.
Alfred Francis Russell (? – 1884) originated from Kentucky, U.S.A., before coming to Liberia in 1833. He was Vice President of Liberia when President Anthony William Gardiner’s handling of a boundary dispute with the British was disapproved by a number of senators. Vice President Russell shared the criticism and soon headed the opposition against Gardiner’s willingness to give up a large part of Liberian territory. President Gardiner resigned over the boundary question on January 20, 1883. Russell served Gardiner's unexpired term from January 20, 1883 to January 7, 1884 when he was succeeded by Hilary Richard Wright Johnson who had won the elections held in May 1883. Alfred Francis Russell died on April 4, 1884. The following year, the disputed territory was officially ceded to Great Britain (‘the Galinas territory’).
Anthony William Gardiner (1820-1885) was born in Virginia, U.S.A. He came with his parents to Liberia where they arrived in January 1831. Little is known of his childhood years in Southampton, Virginia, or in the Liberia Colony of the American Colonization Society that had paid for his trip to Africa aboard the brig Volador.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876) was born in Virginia, U.S.A. His parents were poor. He came to Liberia in 1829. Roberts soon became a prosperous trader and also engaged in politics. After the creation of the Commonwealth of Liberia, in 1838, he became Vice-Governor. In 1841 Governor Thomas Buchanan, a cousin of the President of the USA, James Buchanan, died and was succeeded by J.J. Roberts. It was the first time that the colony was not governed by a white agent of the American Colonization Society - its legal owner - but by a colonist. Although Roberts was a colonist, "he was not really black; he was an octoroon and could have easily passed for a white man", as Aboyomi Karnga, one of Liberia’s best-known historians reported. the Independent Republic of Liberia was created, J.J. Roberts became its First President. He served several terms from 1848 till 1855. After the deposition of the country’s first ‘black’ president, E.J.Roye (in 1871) he was again elected and served another term. It is very likely that the ‘colour conflict’ which separated the leading mulattoes from the large majority of colonists of darker complexion had much to do with the animosity between Roberts and Roye.
James S. Smith was E.J. Roye's vice president, and may have completed Roye’s term 1871-1872. As such, it is disputed as to whether he was the sixth President of Liberia. He was born in South Carolina, USA.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts
Published: 14 September, 2005
Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876) was born in Virginia, U.S.A. His parents were poor. He came to Liberia in 1829. Roberts soon became a prosperous trader and also engaged in politics. After the creation of the Commonwealth of Liberia, in 1838, he became Vice-Governor. In 1841 Governor Thomas Buchanan, a cousin of the President of the USA, James Buchanan, died and was succeeded by J.J. Roberts. It was the first time that the colony was not governed by a white agent of the American Colonization Society - its legal owner - but by a colonist.
