PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION Documentary – Review

Many St. Louisans who know a bit of Civil Rights history, Percy Green is known as the man who climbed the Arch, when it was partly built, to protest the lack of minority hiring by the company that was building it. As the 60th anniversary of the St. Louis Arch approaches, it is the perfect time for PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION, the documentary the local legend by Joseph Puleo, which airs on PBS Nine on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 at 7pm.

But there is much more to this Civil Rights activist – icon, actually – than that one spectacular protest, as you will learn in this insightful, engrossing documentary. Now 90 years old, Percy Green is still committed to Civil Rights, and worked with documentary filmmaker Joseph Puleo in the making of this first-rate, inspiring documentary. PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION delves into Green’s life and work, and the Civil Rights movement generally, offering insights and information through archival stills, footage and interviews, as well as some excellent animated sequences.

For one, Percy Green participated in one of the earliest Civil Rights actions in the country, the groundbreaking Jefferson Bank protest in 1963, where protesters didn’t just march but laid in the street to block trucks as part of their non-violent resistance. Green is truly a man of action, which is what he named the Civil Rights organization he founded, ACTION.

Joseph Puleo’s film PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION is skillfully-made, both informative and enjoyable, spotlighting a local hero of the Civil Rights whose name and actions should be known by all. Puleo’s previous documentaries include 2020’s AMERICA’S LAST LITTLE ITALY: THE HILL, about St. Louis’ Hill neighborhood, 2022’s A NEW HOME, about the Bosnian War refugees who settled in St. Louis and transformed the area around Bevo Mill, and the filmmakers has won awards for this work, including a Mid-America Emmy for Best Documentary – Cultural for the latter one. He is currently working on another documentary, BROTHERS IN BLOOD: BALCK IN VIETNAM.

The other big action Percy Green was famous for was the “unveiling” of the Veiled Prophet, an invented pseudo-Middle-Eastern figure, created by an old restricted, whites-only social organization of wealthy and powerful St. Louis “old family” elites, a club that dated back to at least the 19th century. The role of the Veiled Prophet was played by a top-ranking member of this segregated club, whose identity was kept secret, and in that role, presided over a parade and then a debutantes ball. Green didn’t do the un-veiling but he organized that action, which drew attention to this segregated organization.

The documentary personalizes the stories as it tells them, and recounts Civil Rights history, and Percy Green’s history, that should be much better known, not just in St. Louis. The documentary highlights the efforts of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover to attack Green and ACTION, and leaves us with a feeling of uplift and inspiration to see a good man who could not be kept down, and who gave so much to the Civil Rights movement and this country.

Do not must this stirring documentary about a local Civil Rights hero, but if you do, hopefully it will become available through PBS’s Passport streaming service.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars