The lead singer of Motown’s legendary Four Tops has sued a Michigan hospital claiming racial discrimination after staff assumed he was “delusional” when he said he was in the group and placed him in a restraining jacket. Alexander Morris, 53, who is Black and joined the iconic vocal quartet in 2018, went to Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, Michigan, on April 7, 2023 with “clear symptoms of cardiac distress.” He had difficulty breathing and chest pain, and was placed on oxygen, the lawsuit filed Monday in the eastern district of Michigan said.
However, when he informed a nurse and security guard in the emergency room that he was a member of Four Tops and had security concerns due to stalkers and fans, they didn’t believe him. Instead, a doctor ordered he receive a psychological evaluation, and he was restrained for at least an hour and a half. The suit accuses the hospital and two staffers — a nurse and a security guard — of negligence, racial discrimination, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“It was a terrifying experience to be in the middle of a medical emergency, to be placed into restraints, to have my oxygen turned off, my personal effects taken from me, and no help from the doctors and nurses because of the color of my skin. Racial profiling nearly cost me my life,” Morris said in a statement released by his attorneys Tuesday. Morris had a “significant known history of cardiac disease,” including the placement .
