William Tubman

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William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman

19th President of Liberia
In office
January 3 1944 – July 23 1971
Vice President(s)   Clarence Simpson
(1944-1952)
William R. Tolbert, Jr. (1952-1971)
Preceded by Edwin Barclay
Succeeded by William R. Tolbert, Jr.

Born November 25 1895(1895-11-25)
Harper, Liberia
Died July 23 1971
Monrovia, Liberia
Political party True Whig
Religion Methodist

William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman (November 29, 1895 – July 23, 1971) was President of Liberia from 1944 until his death in 1971. He ruled the country longer than any other president to date. Tubman’s presidency was wrought with controversy and an assassination attempt occurred in 1955 by his political opponents.

Liberia changed dramatically during his 27 year presidency. Tubman initiated ‘National Unification Policy’ and economic ‘Open Door Policy’. These policies were a call for better relationship with the tribal people and the colonists.

Early Life

Tubman was born in Harper, Liberia. He was an Americo-Liberian, a descendant of former American slaves who had been returned to Africa under the auspices of the Maryland State Colonization Society, a group favoring the manumission of slaves on Christian grounds.

His father, the Reverend Alexander Tubman, was a general in the Liberian army and a former Speaker of the Liberian House of Representatives, as well as a Methodist preacher. His son would become a lay preacher in his own right and would represent Liberia at the Quadrennial Conference of the Methodist Church at Kansas City in 1928. His mother, Elizabeth Tubman, came from Atlanta, Georgia.

Education and early career

William attended primary school in Harper, then the Methodist Cape Palmas Seminary, and finally Harper County High School. He enlisted in the Liberian army at the age of 15. Between 1910 and 1917 he took part in several punitive military expeditions, rising in the ranks from private to officer status. He studied law under private tutors, served as a recorder in the Maryland County Monthly and Probate Court and as a collector of internal revenue, and in 1917 was appointed county attorney. He was a member of the True Whig Party, which was for over a century the nation's sole legal political party.

His career began to take off when President Charles D.B. King heard him speak at a Masonic banquet and praised his intelligence. King's influence led to Tubman's election as the youngest senator in Liberian history in 1921. He resigned from the Senate to defend Liberia before the League of Nations after allegations that the country was using slave labour surfaced. He was reelected to the Senate for the Monrovia district in 1934. He resigned in 1937 to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia.

Presidency of Liberia

Tubman was elected President in 1943 on a platform of economic growth and increased civil and political rights for all Liberians. One of the first official acts of Tubman's administration was the declaration of war against Nazi Germany and Japan. Liberia became an important country in the supply line of the Allied troops. The U.S. constructed the Free Port of Monrovia and built a temporary landing strip on the beaches of Robertsport.

Tubman enfranchised native Liberians and women for the 1951 election. However, this fact, although pleasing to those groups and the international community, did not change the electoral outcome as Tubman used the True Whig-controlled electoral machinery to produce fraudulent results. This, however, did not significantly harm his popularity in Liberia throughout his lifetime.

Regarded as a pro-Western, stabilizing influence in West Africa, Tubman was courted by many Western politicians, notably U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Meanwhile, Tubman courted Amy Ashwood Garvey, and had a long-term relationship with her.

A gunman attempted to assassinate Tubman in 1955 at the hire of his political opponents, after which he cracked down brutally on any known opposition politicians.

Legacy

Tubman's term is best known for the policies of National Unification and the economic Open Door. He tried to reconcile the interests of the native tribes with those of the Americo-Liberian elite, and increased foreign investment in Liberia to stimulate economic growth. These policies led to the crowning achievement of the Liberian economy during the 1950s, when it had the second largest rate of economic growth in the world. At his death in 1971 in a London clinic, Liberia had the largest mercantile fleet in the world, the world's largest rubber industry, the third largest exporter of iron ore in the world and had attracted more than US$1 billion in foreign investment. He was succeeded as President by his long-time vice president William Tolbert. The economic prosperity of Liberia at this time would unleash political dissent with the autocratic rule of Tubman and the True Whig Party, leading to the overthrow of the True Whig oligarchy in 1980 by Samuel Doe. This would also destroy the economic prosperity of Liberia's golden age.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Litwack, Leon F., and August Meier. Black leaders of the nineteenth century. Blacks in the New World. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1988. ISBN 9780252015069
  • Mullane, Deirdre. Crossing the danger water three hundred years of African-American writing. New York: Anchor Books 1993. ISBN 9780385422437
  • Wreh, Tuan. The love of liberty the rule of President William V. S. Tubman in Liberia, 1944-1971. London: C. Hurst 1976. ISBN 9780876632758

External Links


Preceded by:
Edwin Barclay
President of Liberia
1944–1971
Succeeded by:
William R. Tolbert, Jr.

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