AMC apologizes to N.C. civil rights leader removed from 'The Color Purple' screening over seating issue
AMC Theatres has apologized to a civil rights leader who was escorted out of a screening of “The Color Purple” in North Carolina by police after he tried to bring in his own chair he uses for an arthritic disability.
AMC Theatres has apologized to a civil rights leader who was escorted out of a screening of “The Color Purple” in North Carolina by police after he tried to bring in his own chair he uses for an arthritic disability.
The Rev. William J. Barber II, a minister and former president of North Carolina’s NAACP state chapter, attended a screening of the highly anticipated new film “The Color Purple” at AMC Fire Tower 12 in Greenville with his 90-year-old mother Tuesday.
Barber, 60, has ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic form of arthritis that causes inflammation in the joints and ligaments of the spine, according to the National Institutes of Health. He brought his own chair to the theater, something he has done in the past because he’s unable to sit in a wheelchair or in low chairs, he told the Religion News Service.
“My chair has been everywhere,” he told the outlet. “In hospitals, in restaurants, in airports, in the White House and in Congress. It’s a need that I have because I face a very debilitating arthritic condition.”
The Greenville Police Department said it received a call regarding trespassing at the theater at 3:20 p.m. The caller said a customer was “arguing with employees, and they wished to have them removed from the business.”
Rating: 5