Percy B. Green

Born in St. Louis in 1935, Percy Green II grew up in the Compton Hill neighborhood and later studied at Washington University in St. Louis, earning a Master of Social Work. He became a leading voice in the city’s civil rights movement through the St. Louis chapter of CORE and as a founding member of ACTION, a group that pushed for fair hiring and broader Black inclusion.

Green is especially remembered for dramatic, nonviolent protests that forced the public to pay attention. In 1964, he and Richard Daly climbed the Gateway Arch to protest the exclusion of Black workers from jobs connected to the project. He also became the plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, which remains an important part of employment discrimination law.

Across decades of activism, his work focused on economic opportunity as much as symbolism, pressing major institutions in St. Louis to confront unequal access to jobs, power, and public life. That combination of direct action and lasting legal impact has made him one of the city’s most recognizable civil rights figures.