Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP Photo. Concepcion Picciotto, a Spanish immigrant, died on Monday at a facility for homeless women in Washington, D.C. She was believed to be 80 years old.
Picciotto had maintained a peace vigil in front of the White House since 1981, when she and fellow activist William Thomas joined together to protest nuclear proliferation. After Thomas died in 2009, Picciotto continued the vigil. As of 2016, she had been protesting for more than 30 years, in what may be the longest act of political protest in American history.
Picciotto, who was also known as Connie or Conchita, was well a well known figure in the Washington, D.C. area. She was featured on walking tours, and in 2005, DCist interviewed her about her protest.
At the time, she said that she was there nearly 24 hours a day, leaving only for human “necessities.” She said that what motivated her protest was corruption, and that she believed that all the presidencies she had protested were culpable. “We have to remove the president before engaging into a nuclear war, because we cannot tolerate to go with more excuses and lies to Iran or North Korea or any other country, why [do] they support Israel who proliferate the world with nuclear weapons,” she said.
The protest was interrupted on two occasions in 2013 when the National Park Service removed Picciotto's hand-lettered signs and a shelter when it was left unattended. Both times, NBC reported, the items were returned.
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