AMC Theater Tosses Bishop William Barber for Bringing Disability Chair to See “The Color Purple”

Civil rights leader Bishop William Barber joins us to discuss his calls for more awareness and justice for disabled people after he was kicked out of a Greenville, North Carolina, AMC movie theater last week when he went to see The Color Purple with his 90-year-old mother. Barber was threatened with trespassing and police forcibly removed him from the theater when the manager refused to allow him to use a specialized chair he carries to assist with an arthritic condition. “There was no attempt to accommodate,” Barber says of the theater’s discrimination on the basis of disability and the danger of its staff’s decision to call the police. “You cannot keep [people with disabilities] from enjoying what the rest of the public enjoys simply because they have some form of a disability.” He describes his meeting with the AMC CEO, discusses how the Americans with Disabilities Act is linked to the struggle for the Civil Rights Act, and says he plans to continue the fight for justice.