Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II has sat with presidents, he’s marched with Jesse Jackson and he’s been arrested in peaceable protests for voting rights and better wages, however his latest expertise on the AMC Hearth Tower 12 was new to him.
The civil rights chief, on the Greenville, N.C. theater together with his 90-year-old mom to see The Colour Purple on Tuesday, was requested to depart the theater over a seating situation.
Rev. Barber, 60, has lengthy suffered from a type of arthritis generally known as ankylosing spondylitis. He has hassle sitting for lengthy stretches, can not use a wheelchair and walks utilizing two canes. Low chairs are a problem for him. He travels together with his personal chair and virtually all the time makes use of it as a substitute of the seating offered in public areas.
“My chair has been in all places,” Barber instructed Faith Information Service. “In hospitals, in eating places, in airports, within the White Home and in Congress. It’s a necessity that I’ve as a result of I face a really debilitating arthritic situation.”
Tuesday, nonetheless, workers on the theater wouldn’t enable him to make use of his particular chair, saying it was a fireplace hazard. Solely wheelchairs had been permitted, he was instructed. When Barber requested to see the theater’s written coverage, he says he was instructed there wasn’t one.
Police had been referred to as and Rev. Barber agreed to depart, although he didn’t agree with the theater’s coverage and needed to depart his mom within the theater with an assistant.
“I felt like I wasn’t being heard,” Barber instructed CNN. “It felt as if they weren’t even attempting to think about making lodging for my incapacity,” he added.
AMC later issued a press release obtained by CNN.
“AMC’s Chairman and CEO Adam Aron has already telephoned him, and plans to satisfy with him in particular person in Greenville, NC, subsequent week to debate each this example and the great works Bishop Barber is engaged in all through the years,” the assertion reads. “We’re additionally reviewing our insurance policies with our theater groups to assist be sure that conditions like this don’t happen once more.”
A spokesperson for AMC Theaters later instructed Faith Information Service, “We sincerely apologize to Bishop Barber for a way he was handled, and for the frustration and inconvenience delivered to him, his household, and his visitors.”
The spokesperson additionally maintained that AMC welcomes folks with disabilities. “Our theatre groups work laborious to accommodate visitors who’ve wants that fall outdoors of the traditional course of enterprise,” he added.
Rev. Barber mentioned it’s not nearly theater coverage, the People with Disabilities Act requires such venues to make lodging
“This isn’t the traditional world, the place people who find themselves sick are pushed to the facet and instructed, ‘You may’t take part,’” he instructed RNS. “With our legal guidelines, you need to make the lodging.”
