When Alexander Morris, a member of the Motown group The Four Tops, visited a Detroit-area Ascension hospital with chest pain and trouble breathing, he said the staff assumed he was mentally ill after he told them he was a famous singer. Instead of treating Morris, a white security guard told him to “sit his Black ass down” and he was placed in a straitjacket, Morris claims in a new lawsuit.
Morris is suing Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, Michigan over his April 2023 treatment, alleging racial discrimination and false imprisonment, among other counts. The federal lawsuit, filed on Monday in the Eastern District of Michigan, names as defendants the hospital, a nurse, and a security guard who were involved in the incident.