Anthony Anderson seems to always be welcome on Late Night TV. Over the summer he was
a guest-host over at Jimmy Kimmel Live! and wowed viewers with his incredible interview skills, and comic timing. If any network ever wants to develop
Anthony Anderson Live!, we would support it. Like always, right now, the
Black-ish actor has protest, change, democracy, and evolution on his mind (who doesn’t?!) with the results of the American Presidential election looming, so he visited
The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon (weeknights at 11:35pET on CTV2) to speak about the importance of asserting your right to free speech, especially in the face of hate.“I went to Howard University. My first bit of activism came when we took over the administration building as a freshman,” he said via video-chat to a shocked Jimmy. “There was a Klan rally in Washington DC, a Klan march that I went out to protest.”
“A peaceful protest,” he clarified. “But found myself on the wrong side of nine police batons.”Noting that he probably said something in the heat of the moment to the police, he reminded us that it his democratic right to say what he feels, which is protected under the American constitution.“So I’ve been in these streets for a while, protesting for what I feel is right—not only for me as an African American male in this country, but for the community and for the people at large. So this is nothing that’s new to me. It’s been 30-plus years for that. I wear my wounds. I still have a couple of scars and scrapes from that afternoon as an 18-year-old, but I’m proud of them. I get to sit and tell these stories with my children, and people like you who’ll listen,” he continued.[video_embed id='2068840']RELATED: Lady Gaga, John Legend and more throwing their support behind candidates [/video_embed]That’s an incredible story and a great reminder that democracies are built via the will of the people, which of course brought the topic of conversation to voting. Today is Election Day in the U.S., and even thought this interview was filmed yesterday, Anthony used every last second to encourage people to exercise their right to vote.“We all need to get out and vote. My thoughts are, hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, we will have a 46
th president by the name of Joe Biden,” he said, not mincing words. “And a vice president by the name of Kamala Harris.”“But let’s take this time to encourage people to get out and vote no matter what your party affiliation is,” he qualified. “You cannot complain if you do not go to the polls. So go out there and exercise your right to vote because that is our power. That is our power of democracy.”Watch
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights at 11:35pET on CTV2.[video_embed id='2030335']BEFORE YOU GO: Cat attempts daily hilarious attack on mail carrier [/video_embed]
