Norman Morrison Self-Immolation (1965)

Tue Nov 02, 1965

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Norman Morrison (1933 - 1965) was a Baltimore Quaker committed suicide via self-immolation in protest of the Vietnam War on this day in 1965. Morrison was 31 and left behind a wife and three children.

The act was a protest United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and took place directly below Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s office at the Pentagon. Morrison was 31 and left behind a wife and three children.

Morrison’s death was widely publicized and drew comparisons to Thích Quảng Đức and other Buddhist monks, who burned themselves to death to protest the repression committed by the South Vietnam government in years prior. In Vietnam, Morrison became a folk hero to some, his name rendered as “Mo Ri Xon”. On May 9th, 1967, protesters held a vigil for Morrison before occupying the Pentagon for four days until being removed and arrested.

  • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! –Mario Savio