AMC staff call police to boot disabled Black pastor from screening of The Color Purple after the civil rights leader brought a special chair that eases his arthritis and placed it in space for wheelchairs

AMC staff called police to remove a Black disabled pastor and civil rights leader from a movie screening this week after he brought a medical chair that relieves arthritis pain and placed it in a wheelchair space.

The Rev. William Barber II, 60, was at the AMC Fire Tower 12 movie theater in Greenville, North Carolina, with his 90-year-old mother on Tuesday to watch the screening of “The Color Purple” when he was removed by police officers. Greenville.

The mother-and-son movie date was Barber's Christmas gift to her.

Footage of the ordeal shows an agitated hairdresser saying: 'What they are doing is wrong'. WRAL reported.

He stood by his decision to stay put, but was soon escorted out after police told him they had to close the theater and arrest him.

He said he “didn't resist and wasn't violent.”

Barber relies on the medical chair because he suffers from a debilitating bone disease called ankylosing spondylitis. He later received an apology from the cinema chain.

Barber told the officer, “I can't go out in good conscience.”

Civil rights leader tells police officer: 'I'm not resisting…I'm non-violent'

The reverend is seen rising from his seat and telling the officer, “You're going to have to put cuffs on me” before voluntarily leaving the theater

Barber, a civil rights leader, co-chairs the national Poor People's Campaign, which is modeled after an initiative launched by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

He also leads Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit organization that focuses on issues of voter suppression and poverty.

In the video, the officer is heard telling Barber, “I'm going to take you out,” the news channel reported.

Barber responded, “I can't date in good conscience.”

At one point he tried to explain to police that he “cannot bend down to sit in a low chair, nor can he get up from a low position.”

He told the news station that his mother worked with his father to help integrate public schools and that they “came to enjoy the music and story of that movie about triumph over adversity,” the news station said.

“Our plans were interrupted when the managers chose to call the police instead of considering my visible disability,” Barber joked.

On Friday, the bishop became emotional during a news conference as he spoke about the ordeal and shared his support for people with disabilities, the Associated Press reported.

He spoke about the Americans with Disabilities Act and the need for businesses to provide the accommodations required by the law.

“I know that if I can't sit in my seat in a theater in Greenville, North Carolina … thousands of other people will be excluded from public spaces in this country,” he said.

At the conference, he told the audience that managers at the AMC theater had an armed guard and local police officers to remove him after he determined to use the chair.

Barber voluntarily agreed to leave the theater and his mother stayed behind to watch the film. No charges have been filed.

Barber pictured in Washington, DC, leading a rally in December 2021 asking Congress to pass voting rights protections while speaking about the 'Build Back Better Act'

The nation's largest movie chain apologized to Barber in an email, saying that “it welcomes guests with disabilities and works hard to accommodate guests with disabilities,” WRAL reported.

“We are also reviewing our policies with our theater teams to ensure situations like this do not arise again,” the statement said.

Barber, a professor at Yale Divinity School, said he plans to meet with Adam Aron, the chairman of AMC Entertainment Holdings, after Aron contacted him.

He said he “hopes this will lead to just and good things for people with disabilities.”

He was a former president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP before resigning in 2017.