Joe Morton Wants America to Come Together

Emmy-winning actor-musician Joe Morton (he played Kerry Washington's father, Rowan “Eli” Pope, on Scandal) didn't take quarantine lying down. He made the call-for-unity song and music video “Wake Up America" and appears in the star-studded adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ National Book Award–winning book, Between the World and Me (HBO, Nov. 21, 8 p.m. ET), which recounts the author's experiences growing up Black in Baltimore's inner city. The show combines a 2018 Apollo Theater stage adaptation, family movies, animation and powerful readings from Coates’ book by Morton, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance and Pauletta Washington. AARP chatted with Morton about his new work and his past.

On Americans facing the impact of systemic racism during the coronavirus pandemic

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Because we were self-quarantined and George Floyd was killed at the same time, we couldn't escape it. I think that did sort of raise people's eyebrows to say, “Oh, maybe those things that we heard about, young Black men being killed by white policemen, is really true.” Hopefully, there will be people who are not of color who will look at Between the World and Me and in some ways, like [Morton's 1984 film] The Brother From Another Planet, they'll be able to look at it through the eyes of Black people, through the eyes of someone they kind of know.

A reminder of the vibrancy and vitality of historic Black colleges and universities

I also think that when we think of universities in this country, often we think of the Ivy League. We think of Princeton, Harvard and all those kinds of places. In the film it will be nice to see Black people in a Black university, Howard University, where Ta-Nehisi Coates went to school, and see that kind of joy, that kind of romance and innocence, if you will.

Speaking of Howard University...

What [Howard alum and Vice President–elect] Kamala Harris offers this country is the prospect of a woman of color having some sway and some power and some influence in this country.

Why it was important to create ‘Wake Up America'

The divisions in this country are fairly wide, and we wanted to put together a piece of music and lyrics that are nonpartisan and talk about unity and hope and about the prospects of how to gain that. If politicians on both sides of the political line dealt only in fact and not in party lines or platforms, the debates would be about that — what is the best way to fix this problem or that problem or make this better or that better. It says in our Constitution, “to form a more perfect union,” not “to form a more perfect division."