William Barber II escorted out of movie theater, denied disability accommodations

William Barber is no stranger to being escorted by police away from scenes of protest. The Disciples of Christ pastor and civil rights organizer has been arrested multiple times at nonviolent demonstrations on behalf of voting rights, a federal minimum wage and other social justice issues.

But even Barber was surprised to find himself being escorted by police out of a showing of The Color Purple at Greenville, North Carolina’s AMC Fire Tower 12 movie theater on Tuesday after employees barred the minister from using his own chair to watch the movie with his 90-year-old mother.

“It’s one of those things where I don’t know how much longer I’ll have to do things like that with her,” said Barber, who co-chairs the Poor People’s Campaign and recently founded the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.