And I think this will probably
be the hottest summer in civil
rights that we've ever had.
Doctor Martin Luther King Junior
made that comment on a visit to
Saint Louis just four months before
President Lyndon Johnson signed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The movement did heat up that summer,
especially along the riverfront
where a landmark was being built.
Kelly Jackson revisits a monumental
climb for equality and a reunion
nearly 58 years in the making.
Perhaps you've heard
the story of how activists.
You see, Green and Richard
Daley climbed a section of the
Gateway Arch while it was under
construction on July 14th, 1964.
It was a bold move.
The reason was simple.
Higher black construction
workers to build the arch.
What you haven't heard is their
story of what happened that day,
told together until now.
And we were there.
How you doing? I'm doing OK.
How you doing, buddy?
Is good as to be expected.
Long time, no see.
It's been a long time.
Been a long time.
Both men, now in their 80s,
are moving a little slower
than their arch climbing days,
catching up on surprising revelations.
You spend time down at the workhouse?
Yeah, six days in the back.
I was in segregation because they
thought I was a troublemaker. Oh,
the mission to climb 125 feet up
the arch was a well thought out
plan that started with a visit
to the site prior to the actual.
Line we walked up and then and
then this number and then the the
workers were sitting around eating.
They reported back to their group
and put the plan into action.
Other members would be the decoy
protesting at the old courthouse.
He just
went for it, right? And we
just walked right up and
then we started climbing.
They climbed about 125 feet.
The thinking was that we wanted to be a safe
distance from the workers. They were they.
They were working at the 300 foot barn.
They're brave. Act of civil disobedience
that day with simple and clear
higher blacks to work construction,
we felt as if that black folks
had the ability to learn,
just needed the opportunity.
While you're up there,
did anyone at any point try
to get you to come down?
Ohh yeah ohh yeah. Yes
it did. And then the cops came up
there and said you have to get down.
You have to get down now.
They said no, no we don't.
Just over 5 hours later they did come down.
Both were eventually loaded into
a police van refusing to walk.
The first arrest for both men.
I'm not going to walk to jail.
They're climbed for equality would
have swift ramifications for Mr. Green.
August the 28th of that year,
I was terminated from from my job
after having eight years of seniority.
He qualified for another job at McDonald.
Douglas but he didn't get it. So Mr.
Green filed a lawsuit after the
1964 Civil Rights Act was passed.
It went all the way to the
Supreme Court, and he won.
My case made it possible.
To prove racial discrimination
in employment circumstantially,
Green's participation and firing in
essence led to two major civil rights
decisions with long lasting effects.
Daily situation was different.
It was very close to going
back to Graduate School.
That's kind of the reason why
I figured I'd just go to jail.
Did it feel like you were?
Wow, the outcome of this
could really enact change.
I was very naive. I thought,
we're going to fix this. No problem.
I really had no idea how deep
and difficult the problem was.
Yeah, there's a ladder. Yeah,
their move did enact change.
Two years later, in 1966,
the National Park Service hired an
African American plumbing firm to
work on the Arch Visitor Center.
Their actions also change federal hiring
practices in our country's history.
This is ironically, neither
men have been up in the arch.
There's a ladder right
here sometimes, but being
next to it, feeling it and knowing their
role was in this grand monument is what
matters to them.