Чарльз Данбар Берджесс Кинг: Либерия президенті (1920-1930)

President of Liberia from 1920 to 1930

Charles Dunbar Burgess King (12 March 1875 – 4 September 1961) was a Liberian politician who served as the 17th president of Liberia from 1920 to 1930. He was of Americo Liberian and Sierra Leone Creole descent. He was a member of the True Whig Party, which ruled the country from 1878 until 1980. King was Attorney General from 1904 until 1912, and Secretary of State of Liberia from 1912 until he was elected president in 1919. In this capacity, he attended the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and the accompanying First Pan African Congress. Though a moderate supporter of reform, he continued to support the patronage machine and corrupt dominance of the True Whig Party. President King’s administration was marked by scandal. His economic agenda and development plan consistently fell short of expectations; and while literacy rates increased with broader access to public education, his presidency is best known for a string of political scandals and economic setbacks. In 1927, he won the presidential election with over 15 times more votes than there were electors, causing concern for a rigged and corrupt election, but a forced labor and slavery scandal forced his resignation in 1930. Charles King resigned in disgrace and retired from seeking higher office thereafter until his death. His presidency was marked by extreme corruption, nepotism for the hiring of officials rather than by skill, and a lack of transparency regarding the decisions his administration was making regarding the welfare of the people and use of slave labor.

King became Liberia's President in 1920 and served for ten years. As president, he helped establish the Booker Washington Agricultural and Industrial Institute in Kakata in 1929, and although King was considered a moderate reformer within the True Whig Party, his administration was mired in corruption and controversy, serving the party's patronage machine and making appointments based on nepotism and political favors.

By the early 1920s, Liberia's financial crisis had worsened to the point where President King headed up a commission that traveled to the United States to seek reorganization of the country's staggering debt burden. They arrived in March 6, 1921, shortly after President Warren G. Harding had taken office. The U. S. Congress had suspended all foreign credit and extension of foreign loans, even though the U. S. State Department favored approving the request from the Liberian delegation. In July, U. S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes said that it was the moral duty to extend the requested loan to Liberia because of an 1918 agreement between the two countries. The following month, President Harding told Congress that he agreed with Secretary Hughes. This created great disappointment and a sense of desperation among Liberian officials, who worried that British and French designs on their country might now prove unstoppable. Liberia had become a charter member of the League of Nations in 1919, and the Liberian government was determined to safeguard its sovereignty.

In 1925, Firestone Rubber Company agreed to a 99 year lease of of land in Liberia in order to grow rubber on it. Firestone began exporting rubber from Liberia in 1934. The Liberian economy soon came to depend on it. Firestone's subsidiary Finance Corporation of America gave a $5million loan to the Liberian government, which Liberia intended to use to consolidate and bond debts and fund public improvements. Under the terms of the loan, the President of the United States appointed a financial advisor to Liberia who had the power to approve and disapprove all expenditures by the Liberian government. however, Liberia only had 15,000 registered voters at the time. Thus, King was later listed in the Guinness Book of Records for the most fraudulent election reported in history.

King served as resident minister to the United States from 24 to 25 July 1947, when the legation was raised to embassy. King continued to serve as ambassador until 1952.

King was first married to Janie E. Scott, and the couple had a son and two daughters. His second wife was Cecelia Adeline Cooper and they had one son together. In 1919, King and his wife were guests of President Woodrow Wilson in the United States.