War Tax Resister Lillian P. Willoughby

The Philadelphia Inquirer brings us the obituary of long-time tax resister and tireless activist Lillian P. Willoughby.

Willoughby was for a time the clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s “War Tax Concerns Support Committee” (now called the “Conscience, Militarism, and War Tax Concerns Working Group”). At one point the IRS seized her family’s car in an attempt to retrieve over $10,000 in back taxes (the Willoughbys bought the car back at auction for $900).

More recently, she was jailed for a week after helping to blockade the Federal Building in Philadelphia in an Iraq War protest shortly before her 90th birthday, after refusing the option to pay a fine.