Lewis Hill

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Lewis Hill (born May 1, 1919 in Kansas City , Missouri , † August 1, 1957 ) was an American pacifist , author, activist and founder of the KPFA station . The station laid the foundation for the Pacifica broadcast network , the oldest listener-financed radio network in the United States. a. the political magazine Democracy Now produces.

Life

Lewis Hill was born in Kansas City in 1919. His father was a lawyer who was fortunate enough to make big money selling an oil drilling company to JP Morgan . His uncle was Frank Phillips, the founder of Phillips Petroleum . Hill was sent to the Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington , Missouri, because he seemed gifted. Even if the school didn't appeal to him, he stayed in college for the first two years and became a Missouri doubles champion. He then moved to Stanford University . There he became interested in Quakerism from 1937 . These insights led him to pacifism.

Hill suffered from spinal arthritis , but was classified by the Selective Service System in class "4-F" as conditionally suitable (not for military tasks). In 1942, however, he registered as a conscientious objector and was sent to a conscientious objector camp in Coleville. There, together with Roy Finch, the plan to found the Pacifica Network was developed.

In October 1943 he was released from the camp due to his deteriorating medical condition. He was recruited by the National Committee on Conscientious Objectors of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In this position he defended pacifists who had left the camps to organize peace conferences or to take part in protest marches.

During this time, Hill developed his idea of ​​a non-commercial network that would become a place for wholesome dialogue. He came to believe that a pacifist should clearly position himself with specific ideas about another world and not just protest against the status quo . This public engagement should be an example of peaceful direct action .

In 1946 he moved to San Francisco with his wife Joy Cole Hill with the aim of founding a radio station there. In 1948, he founded KPFA, the world's first listener-financed FM station.

literature

  • Matthew Lasar: Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War. Germinal Production, 2005. ISBN 978-1900355452

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matt Swanson-Hurley: Pacifica Remembers Its Pacifist Roots. Retrieved May 26, 2015, August 17, 2016 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Hill, Lewis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pacifist, activist, journalist, and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1957