LIBERIA POST on 26 October 1978 issued three stamps marking U.S. President Carter's visit to Liberia which took place on 3 April 1978. The stamps featured Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter with Liberian President Tolbert, Carter-Tolbert motorcade and Carter-Tolbert families together. The stamps were lithopraphed by Format International Security Printers, England on unwatermarked paper with 13½ or 14 perforations.
Carter chose to visit Nigeria and Liberia because Nigeria was and is the largest and most influential African nation and because Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in the early 19th century. Also, at that time, Liberia's President Tolbert was the leader of the Baptist World Alliance. Tolbert could trace his ancestry to a slave family freed in Georgia and repatriated to Africa. About a year later, Tolbert and 13 of his cabinet members were lined up and assassinated by insurrectionist Samuel Doe.
This was the beginning of an era of extreme violence and corrupt government that has made Liberia one of the most war-torn and poverty stricken nations in the world, despite its rich natural resources in land, timber, and minerals.
President Tolbert declared Carter's visit a public holiday and mobilised every available government servant or armed forces member for his visit. Villagers hung tens of thousands of palm branches at 10-foot intervals along the road from Robertsfield Airport to Monrovia in an effort to turn the poorly surfaced two-lane highway into a triumphal avenue. Rosalynn Carter and Tolbert's wife Victoria, had lunch in one room of the mansion, while their husbands dined in another. Amy Carter was the guest of 11 Liberian children, including five of Tolbert's grandchildren, in a teahouse on the mansion grounds.
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