When Mayor Francis Slay and other invited guests clinked their champagne glasses to toast the 40th anniversary of the St. Louis Arch, one ACTION hero was distinctively absent: Percy Green.
The building of the country’s tallest national monument and architectural wonder was marred by racism. The protest to dramatize the exclusion of blacks in the $35 million Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is probably best personified by one of the most daring acts ever: the climbing of the Gateway Arch.
Green and fellow CORE member Richard Daly (not related to the Chicago political family) scaled the unfinished north leg of the Arch before being detected.
Green was also not invited by the National Parks Service to autograph their commemorative envelopes. That honor was extended to whites who worked on the Arch and to the daughter of its designer, Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen.
Maybe we could excuse Green’s omission from most of the Arch’s history if African Americans were proportionately represented in the construction industry in 2005. The 1964 act of defiance immediately opened up opportunities for several black-owned businesses. The economic opportunities were short-lived.
Fast forward to the billions of dollars of construction going on in the metro area, and the struggle for parity continues. The I-70 shutdown and the Metrolink lay-in protested the lack of blacks on MoDot projects. There need to be similar protests until we actually get our fair share of greater St. Louis construction dollars.
A mayor’s Executive Order to remedy persistent racial discrimination was the result of a court-ordered consent decree in 1990. If my memory serves me correctly, then-Comptroller Virvus Jones was the engine for the first Executive Order. For nearly 15 years, the mandated percentages for minority and women participation in city contracts has remain unchanged, 25 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Not only should we be outraged at the stagnant quotas in the face of an increasing black population, but now we have no way of knowing who is a legitimate “minority” because of lax certification policies.
Many wondered if the 40th Anniversary of the Arch would see Percy getting his just recognition. Perhaps the city would light up the silvery structure in the color green or add a vibrant emerald color to the muddy Mississippi River. Not to fear.
Lois Conley, founder and director of the Black Wax History Museum, had a better idea. The museum plans to enshrine Green in wax as part of the anniversary in a special exhibit during Black History Month next year. Conley is looking for black workers on the Arch who benefited from the infamous climb by Green and Daly as well as other related memorabilia.
Anyone interested in helping with the planning can attend a meeting at the museum on Wednesday, November 16 at 6 p.m. Donations for the wax figure and exhibit are encouraged. For more information, call the museum at (314) 241-7057.