Jeffrey Wright on Why Abraham Lincoln's Presidency Helps Us 'Understand Who We Are Today'

Jeffrey Wright is lending his voice to a part of our nation's history.

The Tony-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor narrates the new Apple TV+ docuseries Lincoln's Dilemma, which reexamines Abraham Lincoln's presidency nearly 162 years since he took office as the country's 16th commander-in-chief.

When the four-part series premieres on Friday, ahead of Presidents' Day, Wright says Lincoln's Dilemma will not only be "timely," it will also be "useful" to those who watch it.

"The series features footage from Jan. 6," Wright, 56, tells PEOPLE. "There are Confederate flags paraded through the United States Capitol on that day. There was a Confederate flag raised above the statue, the memorial to Ulysses S. Grant on the Mall at D.C., that day."

"What do these things mean, really?" he asks. Then he explains:

"If you go back into the history of our country, you understand what these symbols represent very clearly. Lincoln is the president [when he was] navigating the country through Civil War — an attempt to not only divide America, but to destroy it — and on the other side of that division, on the other side of Lincoln, flies that flag, that Confederate flag that was paraded through the United States Capitol on Jan. 6."

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He adds, "Anyone with a rational mind who goes back and reads that history would never fly that flag in the United States Capitol or anywhere. So I think it's valuable for us to go back and take in the history so that we understand what came before us and we understand who we are today."

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Presented in four one-hour episodes, Lincoln's Dilemma features journalists, scholars and educators recounting the days before and during Lincoln's presidency, including the end to slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.

Wright, who narrates the series, is joined by Bill Camp voicing Lincoln and Leslie Odom Jr. as the voice of Frederick Douglass.

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After reading the script, Wright says he was "immediately drawn in," adding that he quickly began to research details about Lincoln's presidency that he was "previously unaware of."

"The political complexities in the country at that time that [Lincoln] had to navigate through were tremendous and, in some ways, not terribly dissimilar to some of the challenges we face today — although much more intense," Wright says.

"And I think if we take time to go back and review that history, it will shine a little perspective on where we are now."