As Liberians at home and abroad prepare to celebrate 179 years of nominal independence, there’s at least one daughter of the soil who’s adamant about her countrypeople addressing, and learning from, the circumstances around the assassination of Liberian President William Richard Tolbert, Jr.
That woman, Renee Williams, is Tolbert’s great-niece and one of several who’ve watched the documentary, “The Assassination of William R. Tolbert.” In the countdown to D.C. metropolitan area film screenings, she’s calling on local Liberians to revisit one of the darkest days in Liberia’s history.
“I want to see Liberia thrive and unite and not allow ourselves to be divided by things like where you’re from and how you get here,” Williams told The Informer. “We can move forward as a country, knowing our rich history, knowing our rich resources as African people, loving ourselves and the importance of loving ourselves, but definitely taking a hard look at the reasons that we got in this place.”
When Williams was a toddler, she and her family escaped Liberia in the aftermath of the military coup that claimed the lives of President Tolbert, and days later, her grandfather, Senator and President Pro Tempore Frank E. Tolbert, along with a dozen other administration officials.
The events of April 12-22, 1980, which brought indigenous Liberian and Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe to power, laid the foundation for two civil wars that claimed the lives of at least 250,000 Liberians and displaced millions more. Though historians often credit the Rice Riots of 1979 and decades-long tensions between Americo-Liberians and indigenous Liberians as causes of Tolbert’s downfall, the documentary suggests more nefarious forces at play, notably the United States government anxious about Tolbert’s Pan-Africanist and anti-Zionist stance.
For most of her life, Williams sat at the feet of her father, Dr. Richard Tolbert, as he recounted the details of the assasination. The documentary, which was released in January, came out of filmmaker Gerald “Gee-Bee” Barclay’s engagement with Dr. Tolbert, a family elder who coordinated an annual wreath laying ceremony in honor of the late president.
Dr. Tolbert died in the fall of 2024, months after Barclay met him and documented the ceremony in Liberia. Williams called the documentary a manifestation of, not only Barclay’s efforts, but her father’s insistence on keeping history alive.
“From the time I was a child, I’d seen the footage of the coup, the killings of my grandfather and the other members of the government in Liberia,” Williams told The Informer. “I’ve been aware of the fact that President Tolbert was assassinated and all the things that surrounded those events from the time I was a child. My father thought it was very important for us to be aware of that.”
In the early morning hours of April 12, 1980, Doe and other members of what would become the People’s Redemption Council broke into the Executive Mansion and killed Tolbert. Williams, who watched “The Assassination of William R. Tolbert,” with her brother John at the Atlanta premiere earlier this year, acknowledged that she had a lot more to learn about her esteemed ancestor’s last moments in hiding.
“He had children on the same floor and knew that their lives were in danger,” Williams told The Informer about President Tolbert. “My father talked about it [in the documentary], how he knew that if he left that protected room, what would happen to him, but he did it because he didn’t want the grandchildren that were there to be inflicted with harm.”
Gerald “Gee-Bee” Barclay: A Liberian on a Mission to Tell the Whole Truth
The July 18 screening of “The Assassination of President William R. Tolbert” at Sankofa Video Books & Cafe in Northwest, sponsored by the Liberian Community Association of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, has been booked to capacity.
However, Liberians and other community members have an opportunity to catch another screening on July 19 at Holiday Inn Express in Laurel, Maryland.
Barclay, the producer of the film and great-grandson of Liberian President Edwin Barclay, said his latest project about Liberia provides the opportunity for reflection in advance of Liberian Independence Day on July 26.
“The people that come will lead to a strong discussion about leadership, vision, and healing,” Barclay told The Informer.
In 1980, after the military coup, Barclay and his family found refuge in the United States, first moving to Houston before establishing roots in Staten Island, New York. That’s where Barclay spent his formative years and befriended members of the Wu Tang Clan, a relationship that led into his foray into filmmaking.
“The Assassination of President William R. Tolbert” follows Barclay’s production of several film projects, including those about the civil wars that rocked Liberia in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the Ebola outbreak that overwhelmed the country’s fragile health care infrastructure between 2014 and 2016.
Those watching the Tolbert assassination film on July 18 and July 19 will hear straight from: Dr. Tolbert; surviving Tolbert cabinet member Elwood Dunn; Neh Dukuly-Tolbert, Liberian diplomat and wife of the late Liberian Finance Minister Stephen Tolbert; Liberian warlord-turned-clergyman Joshua Blahyi; and Niels Hahn, author of “Two Centuries of US Military Operations in Liberia.”
Barclay, who returned to Liberia as an adult for the first time in 2004, started production of the Tolbert film during the 2024 wreath laying ceremony that marked the April 22 execution of the 13 Tolbert cabinet members.
He called the 21-month project a cathartic experience, one that allowed him to revisit a pivotal moment in his life.
“A lot of people have their own versions of the story. I was 11 years old, and I didn’t really understand what was going on, and then a lot of the history wasn’t documented,” Barclay told The Informer. “All of the people who watch the film are going to walk away knowing these are the things that are attributed to it, whether it be the colonial introduction in the early-to-mid 1800s, all the way to involvement with the CIA and other outside forces leading to the destruction.”
Tolbert, a descendent of formerly enslaved African Americans who immigrated to Liberia in the 1870s, served as vice president during the presidency of William V.S. Tubman. By the time of his assassination, he made a name for himself as the first African president of the Baptist World Alliance, and the second Americo-Liberian president fluent in an indigenous Liberian language.
After Tubman’s death in 1971, Tolbert assumed the helm of Liberia, later winning re-election in 1975. The hallmarks of his presidency included his attempt to bring more indigenous Liberians into the government, his insistence on presidential term limits, the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States, severance of ties with Israel, and, much to the chagrin of the U.S., Liberia’s Cold War-era alliance with the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba.
Tolbert also called on members of the Americo-Liberian elite to invest more of their wealth to expand Liberia’s middle class and foster economic self-determination. Domestically, he called for an audit of, and payment of back taxes from, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which, since the early 20th century, exploited indigenous labor and extracted several pounds of rubber from Liberia.
However, as Barclay pointed out, much of the mainstream media focus on Tolbert’s presidency is on the Rice Riots of 1979, during which Liberian military forces killed more than 40 protesters who took to the streets in response to an increase in the price of rice, a Liberian food staple.
“If the Western media gets a hold of your story, they can twist it and turn you into a monster before you even know it,” Barclay said while emphasizing the importance of his film project. “This is a perfect example of us controlling our narrative. ‘60 Minutes,’ who did a piece on Tolbert a few months before he was assassinated, used propaganda to get people to go against their own president.”
As Barclay explained, the struggle continues to help Liberians expand their understanding of Tolbert’s assassination. During the April 14 screening in Liberia, for instance, Barclay encountered viewers who, as he recalled, wanted to avoid conversation about actors, internal and external, who fanned the flames of armed conflict and have yet to be held accountable.
“There are people who still want to believe that Tolbert needed to be killed… but they failed to look at what hands were at play in the destruction,” Barclay said. “I got some pushback from people wanting me to shape my narrative to fit their agenda. There are people who…played a part in the destruction…but didn’t want the light to shine on them.”
The D.C. Metropolitan Liberian Community Makes Stride in Bridging the Gap
This year, the theme for Liberian Independence Day, as dictated by the Government of Liberia, is “Honoring Centuries of Shared History” — an allusion to Liberia’s establishment by freed African Americans who repatriated to West Africa with the assistance of the American Colonization Society during the early 19th century.
On July 25, Liberians in the D.C. metropolitan area will attend an annual Liberian Independence Day festival at the Liberian Embassy in Northwest.
Other events, organized by the Liberian Community Association of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area and youth-led group Palava in the District, include the “One-Way Ticket to Monrovia” all-white affair on the night of July 25 in Silver Spring, Maryland. On Aug. 8, the annual Liberian Independence Day Ball at St. Andrews Ukrainian Hall, also in Silver Spring, Maryland, will feature John “L.I.B. Johnny” Teeba as the featured performer and historian C. Patrick Burrowes and Liberian Ambassador to the U.S. Al-Hassan Conteh as guest speakers.
“We are collaborating with our youthful generation in the community,” said Sebastian Teclar, president of the Liberian Community Association of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. “They are at the table planning the events. It’s something that is geared towards their own liking.”
Teclar told The Informer that an eagerness to engage generations of Liberians compelled the leadership of the Liberian Community Association to support the Tolbert assassination film screenings. For him, it’s perfect timing, as Liberians come together to celebrate independence, to study their nation’s history.
“Most Liberians…were not there to experience that situation, but when it is displayed on screen they will get to learn,” Teclar said. “This documentary is a learning tool that Liberians can use to learn some historical facts of what transpired on that fateful morning of April 12, 1980. In our community, we were happy to work in supporting the issuing of the documentary.”
In 1995, Teclar immigrated to the U.S. at the height of the first Liberian Civil War, during which soon-to-be president Charles Taylor and future Liberian senator Prince Johnson vied for control of the West African nation after the assassination of Doe. By that time, the Liberia that Teclar knew as a youth was long gone, as he and his contemporaries, for more than a decade, fought to avoid uniformed officers who often took over the streets of Monrovia.
“You could see soldiers riding around with their guns sticking outside the window,” Teclar told The Informer. “There was a lot of harassment. Some people were taken from their homes and never seen again.”
Upon moving to Montgomery County, Maryland, Teclar became acclimated to American life while immersing himself in a home away from home.
“During those days, the Liberian Community Association was very influential in [the advocacy for] temporary protective status and deferred departure,” Teclar told The Informer. “We are near the seat of the U.S. government. We easily organized marches…to advocate for our people, especially at the end of the civil war in Liberia.”
For the better part of 15 years, Teclar has been involved in the Liberian Community Association of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, during which he and other Liberians fought for the passage of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, which provides a path to permanent residency for Liberian nationals.
Before becoming local association president in 2024, Teclar served as an association board member and chair of the annual Liberian Independence Day celebration. Throughout much of the second Trump administration, as Liberians and other immigrants grew anxious about their safety, Teclar coordinated meetings with immigration lawyers and collaborated with Liberians in other cities.
He calls his work part of giving back to the community that helped him.
“I have benefited from the community, leaders, past leaders, organizing us to appeal to the government of the country to continue to help Liberians who are seeking refuge here,” Teclar told The Informer.
As it relates to the Tolbert assasination film screening, Teclar expressed his desire for Liberians, on the ground and around the world, to bring their minds together in fostering Liberia’s rise to prominence.
“If you read the history of Liberia, you know Liberia was a founding member of the United Nations, and founding member of the Organization of African Unity, now called the African Union,” Teclar said. “Liberia has been at the forefront of helping other African countries gain their independence. Liberia was the place to be, but after that coup, we lost our place.”
