AMC Theaters has apologized to the Rev. William J. Barber II, a civil rights chief, after he was escorted from a Greenville, N.C., theater after workers refused to permit him to make use of a chair he must handle a painful medical situation, he mentioned.
Mr. Barber, 60, was attending a Tuesday afternoon screening of “The Shade Purple” together with his mom, Eleanor Barber, 90. He mentioned he tried to make use of the chair, which an assistant carried for him, by inserting it in an space reserved for handicapped seating, saying he had performed so earlier than in theaters, at Broadway performs and even on a go to to the White Home.
He mentioned a theater worker advised him that he wouldn’t be capable to use the chair, which appears to be like like a small stool, as a result of it didn’t adjust to pointers within the People with Disabilities Act.
Staff then summoned the Greenville police and advised the officers that they needed Mr. Barber to go away or be charged with trespassing, in line with Mr. Barber, who shared a video of the encounter with The New York Instances.
Mr. Barber mentioned he agreed to go away the theater and that no expenses had been filed. The video exhibits a police officer escorting him out of the theater, thanking him for his cooperation and apologizing “for the way in which this turned out.”
His mom stayed and watched the film with an assistant, he mentioned.
“I simply needed to go see the film with my mom,” Mr. Barber mentioned.
In an announcement issued to a neighborhood information station, the AMC theater chain mentioned it “sincerely apologize to Bishop Barber for a way he was handled, and for the frustration and inconvenience delivered to him, his household, and his friends.”
Each the assertion and Mr. Barber mentioned that AMC’s chief government, Adam Aron, had spoken to Mr. Barber by cellphone, and that the 2 deliberate to satisfy in Greenville subsequent week.
Neither AMC Theaters nor the Greenville Police Division responded to requests for remark.
Mr. Barber has a situation known as ankylosing spondylitis, and walks slowly with the help of a cane. He mentioned the illness assaults his joints “like a guided missile” and has compelled him to stay with persistent ache for nearly 40 years. “I describe it like that as a result of it’s a warfare to stay with it,” he mentioned.
He added that folks with disabilities typically battle invisible battles that may be tough for individuals not residing with disabilities to grasp.
“Disabled individuals have a proper to point out up,” Mr. Barber mentioned. “Interval.”
Mr. Barber mentioned that he was grateful that Mr. Aron had reached out instantly and apologized, and was wanting ahead to their assembly.
“I’ve had very constructive conversations with him and with the police chief,” he mentioned, including that he didn’t consider the police even needed to be concerned.
Maria City, president and chief government of the American Affiliation of Individuals with Disabilities, a disability-rights advocacy group, mentioned she discovered the response from theater employees “simply baffling.”
“Individuals with disabilities encounter a lot discrimination every day,” Ms. City mentioned. “They encounter so many sorts of bodily boundaries that by legislation shouldn’t exist.”
The People with Disabilities Act, signed in 1990, is a civil rights legislation that bans discrimination in a number of areas and extensively requires lodging in public locations. “And that’s what film theaters are,” Ms. City mentioned.
Mr. Barber rose to nationwide prominence within the 2010s after main protests in opposition to a North Carolina voter ID legislation {that a} federal appeals court docket later struck down, known as it an unconstitutional effort to “goal African-People with nearly surgical precision.”
Mr. Barber, a former head of North Carolina N.A.A.C.P., is a fixture at rallies, marches and civil disobedience actions. He mentioned that he has been allowed to make use of his chair in quite a few theaters and different locations, together with in jail after being arrested at demonstrations.
