Liberian President Killed in 1980 Coup Gets State Funeral After 45 Years
More than four decades after he was violently overthrown and killed in a military coup, former Liberian President William R. Tolbert Jr. has finally received a state funeral, offering long-overdue national recognition and closure to his family and supporters.
President Tolbert, who led Liberia from 1971 until his assassination on April 12, 1980, was honored in a solemn ceremony held in Monrovia and later in his hometown of Bensonville. His remains were reinterred on June 27, 2025, after being exhumed earlier this year as part of a national reconciliation initiative led by President Joseph Boakai’s administration.
Tolbert was murdered in the Executive Mansion during a coup led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, marking the end of more than a century of Americo-Liberian dominance and plunging the nation into a cycle of unrest that would culminate in two brutal civil wars. His body had been buried in an unmarked mass grave, long unacknowledged by successive regimes.
Speaking at the funeral, President Boakai declared June 24–27 as days of national mourning, calling Tolbert “a man of peace and vision†whose legacy was “violently interrupted.†A Book of Condolence was opened at the Capitol, and thousands attended the lying-in-state ceremony at the First Baptist Church, where Tolbert had once served as a religious leader.
Tolbert’s reburial is seen as a symbolic gesture of healing in a country still grappling with the legacy of political violence. Family members, historians, and local clergy all emphasized the importance of honoring those who served Liberia with dignity, regardless of their political affiliations.
The funeral also included tributes to the thirteen government officials executed shortly after the 1980 coup. A newly erected memorial now bears their names, standing as a reminder of a painful chapter in Liberia’s past.
As the late president was finally laid to rest with full honors, many Liberians expressed hope that the gesture would mark a step toward lasting unity, justice, and national reconciliation.