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 current expertise on the AMC Fireplace 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 Coloration Purple on Tuesday, was requested to depart the theater over a seating challenge.
Rev. Barber, 60, has lengthy suffered from a type of arthritis generally known as ankylosing spondylitis. He has hassle sitting for lengthy stretches, can’t use a wheelchair and walks utilizing two canes. Low chairs are a problem for him. He travels together with his personal chair and virtually at all times makes use of it as an alternative of the seating supplied in public areas.
“My chair has been in every single place,” Barber advised 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, nevertheless, 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 advised. When Barber requested to see the theater’s written coverage, he says he was advised there wasn’t one.
Police had been known as and Rev. Barber agreed to depart, though he didn’t agree with the theater’s coverage and needed to go away his mom within the theater with an assistant.
“I felt like I wasn’t being heard,” Barber advised CNN. “It felt as if they weren’t even attempting to contemplate 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 individual 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 advised Faith Information Service, “We sincerely apologize to Bishop Barber for the way he was handled, and for the frustration and inconvenience dropped at him, his household, and his visitors.”
The spokesperson additionally maintained that AMC welcomes folks with disabilities. “Our theatre groups work arduous to accommodate visitors who’ve wants that fall outdoors of the traditional course of enterprise,” he added.
Rev. Barber stated 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 aspect and advised, ‘You’ll be able to’t take part,’” he advised RNS. “With our legal guidelines, it’s a must to make the lodging.”
