AMC apologizes to civil rights leader kicked out of 'The Color Purple' screening

The AMC movie theater chain has apologized to North Carolina civil rights leader Rev. William Barber II after he was not allowed to use his own chair at a screening of “The Color Purple.”

Barber, the former chair of the North Carolina NAACP, suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that requires him to use a cane and prevents him from sitting in low-bottomed seats. 

Barber, who attended the Tuesday screening in Greenville with his 90-year-old mother, was told he could not place his own chair in the section of the theater reserved for disabled customers. Theater management called the Greenville Police, who said that Barber left voluntarily after they arrived and spoke with him.

He told local station WNCT that there was no signage indicating the chair would not be allowed, and that he has brought his own chair to numerous other venues without incident.

“[W]hether I’m on Broadway, the White House, the State House, United States Congress, they always let me bring this chair. Never been a problem. In fact, other movie theaters, never been a problem,” he said.

“We sincerely apologize to Bishop Barber for how he was treated, and for the frustration and inconvenience brought to him, his family, and his guests,” Ryan Noonan, AMC vice president of corporate communications, said in a statement to WNCT. “AMC’s Chairman and CEO Adam Aron has already telephoned him, and plans to meet with him in person in Greenville, NC, next week to discuss both this situation and the good works Bishop Barber is engaged in throughout the years.”

Noonan added that the company is reviewing its disability accommodations policies with individual theater staffs to prevent similar incidents going forward. 

Barber told Religion News Services that the incident was unbecoming of a modern, developed nation, particularly one with laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“This is not the ancient world, where people who are sick are pushed to the side and told, ‘You can’t participate,’” he said. “With our laws, you have to make the accommodation.”