Garrett Morris recounts being arrested while touring with Harry Belafonte
The police ultimately cleared and released Morris, but he said the experience soured his "naive" idea about the West Coast being all progressives.
As someone who grew up in a segregated area of Louisiana, Garrett Morris has had his fair share of racist experiences.
The 87-year-old actor — who was just awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — moved to New York in 1958 to pursue a career in entertainment to cope with the day-to-day realities of the Jim Crow South. Drawing on his experience singing in the choir at his grandfather’s church in Louisiana, he joined the Belafonte Folk Singers, occasionally providing background vocals for Harry Belafonte.
One particular night, the group was playing at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and Morris decided to walk around Los Griffith Park after rehearsal, according to People.
Looking back, it was a decision he came to regret. “Now, why did I do that?”
Morris said he heard a vehicle horn behind him at some point during his walk, but he ignored it. However, it was the police. After pulling over, a policeman said five words that Morris asserts are very common among young Black men in America: “Up against the wall, motherf—er.”
The “Jamie Foxx Show” star said his only crime was “WWB: Walking While Black.”
Morris claims the police laughed as he continued explaining he was a singer. He tried reaching for the the hotel key where he and the other singers were staying as proof – which he quickly realized was a poor decision when being patted down by a police officer.
The next thing he knew, he was face down on the ground and getting handcuffed, then dragged off to the precinct.
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“I kept saying, ‘What are you arresting me for?'” and they said, ‘Burglary, a–hole.'” Morris recalled. “I tried telling them I’d only been in town for three days, and I wouldn’t be so stupid as to burgle a house without casing it first.”
The cops threw Morris into a cell and checked his records in New York City and with the FBI — both of which came back completely clean.
“Eventually, they said they couldn’t find anything on me, and that’s when I told them to check the itinerary in my pocket,” Morris said. “It said the name of Harry Belafonte, who was one of the most internationally famous singers at the time. Suddenly, they were calling me ‘Mr. Morris.’ But they did not apologize.”
The police ultimately cleared and released Morris, but he said the experience soured his “naive” idea about the West Coast being all progressives.
“In the real world,” he said, People reported, “there was still a significant amount of racism everywhere,” including in showbiz.
Morris went on to become a writer and the first Black cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” where his racist experiences included a white writer trying to steal his ideas.
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