By VOTP News STL Staff
September 19, 2026
ST. LOUIS — The Gateway Arch is one of America’s most recognizable monuments. For civil rights leader Percy Green, its construction also became a place to challenge who was being allowed to share in St. Louis’ economic progress.
Green, born in 1935, was a nonviolent activist, a former member of the Congress of Racial Equality and the founder of ACTION, according to the City of St. Louis Historic Preservation office.
He became nationally known after scaling the unfinished Gateway Arch during a protest over unequal access to construction jobs. A Nine PBS documentary describes that protest and Green’s later organizing as part of a lifetime devoted to resistance.
Green’s challenge to McDonnell Douglas also became an important part of American employment-discrimination law. The city’s historical record credits the case with helping establish how a worker can present initial evidence of racial discrimination.
His story adds an essential layer to the history of the Arch. The monument represents ambition and engineering achievement, but Green’s activism demanded that progress include Black workers rather than leave them outside the opportunity it created.
The Museum at the Gateway Arch documents St. Louis history through the monument’s completion in 1965, including a gallery focused on how the Arch became a reality.
Sources: City of St. Louis Historic Preservation, PBS and the National Park Service
