ST. LOUIS – 61 years ago, Percy Green was arrested for climbing up the Gateway Arch while it was still under construction to protest job discrimination. In August, during Paint Louis, the city’s annual hip hop and street art festival, Green was once again honored, this time with a mural.
St. Louis artists Kristian Blackmon, Marquis Terrel, and Lindy Drew collaborated on the piece, celebrating Green’s lifelong fight for justice.
On July 14, 1964, Percy Green joined Dick Daly in climbing a construction ladder about 125 feet up onto the unfinished north leg of the Arch. Their protest ultimately led to more minority contractors hired for the Arch project, but not without costing him his job as a research and development technician at McDonnell Douglas, where he was working on Project Mercury…