I’m not from St. Louis, but I’ve lived here long enough that it feels egregious that I’d never heard of activist Percy Green before. And I wonder how many other St. Louisans possess that same gap in their knowledge of local history. It’s a hole that director Joseph Puleo seeks to fill with his documentary Percy Green: Man of ACTION, which airs October 27 on Nine PBS.
Part of the reason why I’m so surprised that I’d never heard of Green before is due to the apparent wealth of material relating to him and his work; Puleo notes that for about a 20 year time span, Green’s name was in the local papers daily. Born in 1935 in St. Louis’ Compton Hill neighborhood, Green joined the St. Louis chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) after attending a meeting at the behest of a colleague, and later became a founding member of ACTION (Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negros). He took a far from placid approach to his advocacy for equal rights for Black people; Green’s actions were of the radical sort that made headlines, and made him and his family a target of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. He was also arrested over 100 times, serving out his sentences in the poor conditions of St. Louis’ infamous (and only recently shuttered) Workhouse.
Puleo’s film zips through Green’s greatest hits at a swift clip. Green’s first major and most famous act of protest was scaling the still under-construction Gateway Arch in 1964 alongside his white colleague, Richard Daly; the Arch was a project of immense physical and symbolic significance, but as with many other jobs (and despite the massive amount of manpower required) Black laborers were excluded from working on the site (a moving moment shot for the documentary finds a now almost-90-year-old Green revisiting the Arch grounds). Not long after that, McDonnell Douglas— the aerospace manufacturer with whom Green was employed as an engineer— fired Green; he sued the company on the basis of racial discrimination, his victory in McDonnell Douglas Corp v. Green becoming a landmark civil rights case. In 1972, Green organized the smuggling of two white ACTION members (Gena Scott and Jane Sauer) into St. Louis’ annual Veiled Prophet Ball, run by an elitist organization with racist roots; the pair dropped pamphlets on the crowd, and yanked the veil off of that year’s prophet, whose identity is intended to remain shrouded in secrecy.
In just under an hour, Man of ACTION touches on enough material to fill multiple feature films. That may cause its pacing to feel hurried, but it also succinctly communicates the breadth and depth of Green’s activism, providing the requisite amount of details to stir up intrigue and spur the audience to learn more outside of the documentary (I certainly embarked on an unplanned Veiled Prophet deep dive after watching the film). Puleo draws on a wealth of archival photos and videos, while animated interludes round out any gaps while providing eye-catching visuals. Among those interviewed are Green himself and family members (his son Percy Green II) and colleagues (like Daly and Sauer) who contribute personal perspectives on Green’s unique leadership capabilities, as well as local historians including Walter Johnson, Devin O’Shea, Gwen Moore, and Nina Gilden Seavey who place the abundance of information into context. Underlining the importance of the subject, they note that you can’t talk about the history of St. Louis without talking about Percy Green.
Perhaps one of the things that Man of ACTION accomplishes best, however, is drawing a line from Green’s work for racial equality throughout the 1960s and 70s to the protests that continue today, demanding the exact same thing. Green was active in the protests that followed Black teenager Michael Brown’s 2014 murder in Ferguson at the hands of a white police officer, but as he notes, it’s just as vital to witness a new generation continuing his spirit of activism. As dispiriting as it is to fight the same battles over and over again throughout history, it’s equally as heartening to learn about the people who are willing to put it all on the line to fight for what is right.
Percy Green: Man of Action will premiere on Nine PBS on October 27 at 7 PM, preceded by a free community event in Kiener Plaza on October 25 at 7:30 PM. Runtime: 57 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 