- Left-wing activist the Rev. William Barber is suing AMC Theaters based on a December 2023 incident at a Greenville movie theater.
- Theater employees would not allow Barber to bring his personal chair into the theater to view a movie with his mother.
- Barber is suing the theater chain under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Rev. William Barber is taking a movie theater chain to court over a 2023 incident in Greenville that left him “humiliated,” “embarrassed,” and “defamed.” Barber filed a federal lawsuit Thursday targeting AMC Theaters.
A fixture among North Carolina’s left-wing political activists, Barber has led the Moral Monday rallies that have disrupted activity at the North Carolina General Assembly off and on since Republicans took control of both legislative chambers in 2011.
“On the day after Christmas, December 26, 2023, renowned civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. William Barber planned a special moment with his then ninety-year-old mother,” Barber’s lawyers wrote. “Rev. Barber and his mother scheduled time to watch the newly released film, The Color Purple, at an AMC Theater located in Greenville, North Carolina. Rev. Barber was extremely grateful that he had an opportunity to spend quality time with his elderly mother. Sadly, Rev. Barber was denied that special moment with his mother.”
“Instead, Rev. Barber was humiliated. Rev. Barber was embarrassed. Rev. Barber was defamed. Rev. Barber was accused of committing a crime. Rev. Barber was subjected to this horrific injustice all because AMC employees refused to allow Rev. Barber to bring a chair that he utilizes to cope with his pain and debilitating disability, ankylosing spondylitis,” the complaint continued.
“The ability to use the chair with an elevated seat base is vital. Due to his disability, Rev. Barber is unable to sit in normal chairs or seating and needs this particular type of chair to alleviate his pain,” Barber’s lawyers wrote. “AMC required that he prove that he was disabled, with a doctor’s note, before they would allow him to sit in their theater with his chair.”
“Rev. Barber now seeks federal relief under the American Disability Act [sic] (hereinafter ‘ADA’), and other claims under North Carolina law,” according to the complaint.
Barber has used the same chair in “the White House, the Broadway Theater in New York, and the Vatican,” his lawyers wrote.
Yet employees at the Greenville AMC Theater would not permit Barber to use his chair. Instead an employee called 911 and told authorities “Barber was committing a crime and refuse[d] to leave the premises,” according to the complaint.
“After law enforcement respond[ed] to the scene, Rev. Barber was told that he had to leave the premises or be arrested. Rev. Barber was escorted out of the Auditorium 3 by law enforcement in the presence of all spectators. Rev. Barber had to leave his mother at the AMC theater,” Barber’s lawyers wrote.
“Just before exiting Auditorium 3, Rev. Barber tried to pray for the AMC employee/manager. The AMC employee/manager told Rev. Barber ‘I do not let everybody pray for me,’” the complaint continued.
“AMC’s intentional act of defaming Rev. Barber through their employees/agents caused Rev. Barber severe emotional distress, including stress and anxiety, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, and caused damage to Rev. Barber’s reputation as a national civil rights leader,” according to the lawsuit.
Barber seeks damages and an injunction “restraining AMC from expelling Re[v]. Barber and from retaliating against him for exercising his rights under the ADA.”
The state Supreme Court refused in May 2022 to take up Barber’s appeal of a trespass conviction related to his protests at the state Legislative Building.
Barber’s 2019 conviction carried a $200 fine, court costs, 24 hours of community service, a suspended one-day prison sentence, and two months of unsupervised probation. A three-judge Appeals Court panel unanimously upheld the ruling against Barber in December 2021.
Without a dissent from the Appeals Court, the Supreme Court faced no obligation to take Barber’s case. The activist asked the high court to hear his plea under its “discretionary review.”
In May 2017 Barber “led a group of approximately 50 people in protesting at the Legislative Building in Raleigh, where they gathered, sat in the hallway outside the legislative leaders’ offices and caused a disturbance by impeding access to and from offices, chanting, singing, yelling, and refusing to stop or leave after repeated warnings,” according to a state brief.
The group was protesting Republican legislative leaders’ approach to health care policy.
“Because Defendant [Barber] was the loudest member of the group, he was given several warnings to move, lower his voice, and stop leading the chants, otherwise he would be arrested,” the brief added. “Defendant refused to move and instead, chanted louder and encouraged the crowd to continue chanting should he be arrested. Defendant refused [the] fourth and final request to leave the area and was placed under arrest.”
During his trial and in his appeals, Barber attacked the trespass charge on two fronts. First, he made procedural arguments against the way prosecutors charged him. Second, he argued that the arrest violated his First Amendment rights.
Courts rejected both sets of arguments.