The Occupy Portraits: A Photo Essay

Concepcion and Thomas (1981) …Nuclear-free world and peace and stability for everyone. The longest-running protest in Washington, for 30 years, Connie Picciotto, a 75-year-old activist, has led a 24-hour vigil against nuclear proliferation from a makeshift camp in Lafayette Square next to the White House. The protest must be continuously attended by someone in order to remain in place. In 1986 the National Park Service announced new rules that prohibited overnight sleeping and per- manent protests in the park, saying that the billboard-sized signage that had become commonplace outside the White House was a “visual blight.” But Picciotto, who along with fellow activists William and Ellen Thomas was already a fixture in the park at the time, was permitted to remain at her vigil by ensuring that her encampment for anti-nuclear activists is occupied 24 hours a day.