William Tubman - The New President of Liberia

The New President of Liberia

In December 1942, Liberia was faced with the question of the succession of President Edwin Barclay. Six candidates then applied, including two favorites: Tubman and Foreign Minister Clarence L. Simpson. Without much opposition from Simpson, Tubman was elected president on May 4, 1943, at the age of 48, and was inaugurated January 3, 1944.

While Liberia's ally, the United States, had already used Liberia as a military base, it was not until January 27, 1944, that Liberia renounced its neutrality and declared war on Germany and Japan. In April 1944, Liberia signed the Declaration by United Nations.

Severing diplomatic relations with Germany and expelling all German citizens from Liberia was a difficult decision for Liberia to make for several reasons: (1) German merchants in Liberia ran the Liberian economy; (2) Germany was Liberia's major trading partner; and (3), most of the doctors in Liberia were Germans. Despite the fact that Liberia found itself between a rock and a hard place, it agreed to expel all German residents and declare the full might of the Liberian economy against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers.

In foreign policy, Tubman aligned himself with the US (in June 1944, he and Edwin Barclay traveled to the White House to be guests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt — the first African heads of state to have this happen) while strengthening ties among fellow Africans by participating in the Asian-African Conference of 1955 and the First Conference of Independent African States in Accra, organized by Kwame Nkrumah in 1958. In 1959, Tubman organized the Second Conference of African States.

In 1961, following a Pan-African conference held in Monrovia, Tubman helped in the founding of the group of Monrovia. This association of "moderate" African leaders worked for gradual unification of Africa, unlike the "revolutionary" group of Casablanca.