A historic Black church took the Proud Boys to court. Now it controls
their trademark
[April 04, 2025]
By TIFFANY STANLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — There is so much history between the walls of
Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has hosted
funerals for Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and opened its pews to
American presidents and civil rights icons.
It made history again this year: Thanks to a lawsuit, Metropolitan AME
now controls the trademark to the Proud Boys, the far-right group that
once vandalized the church’s property in Washington.
After a pro-Donald Trump rally in December 2020, Proud Boys destroyed
Black Lives Matter signs at two historically Black churches during a
violent night in the city.
“The act of destroying these signs was not just alcohol-lubricated,
infantile frat-boy stuff,” said the Rev. William H. Lamar IV,
Metropolitan’s pastor.
“This is a softer version of cross-burning, designed to keep us quiet,”
he said.
It was political intimidation, according to Lamar. A judge awarded the
church $2.8 million in damages in 2023, condemning the Proud Boys’
“hateful and overtly racist conduct.”
In February, after the Proud Boys didn’t pay, the court gave the church
use of the group’s name and symbols — seen on its black-and-yellow gear
and laurel wreath logo.
The church can seize money the Proud Boys make through merchandise
sales. And the congregation has begun to sell lookalike shirts on its
website with lines like “Stay Proud, Stay Black.” It plans to offer
similar apparel for Pride Month and Juneteenth, with proceeds going to a
community justice fund.
Lamar said it’s “our way of leveraging something that was intended for
evil.”
The church has a long history of activism
Despite the humor and subversion, Lamar sees the lawsuit as part of a
long line of civil rights activism that has relied on the courts, from
Black women who successfully sued the Ku Klux Klan to lawsuits that
pushed desegregation.
“Metropolitan institutionally is doing what Black women and men have
always done,” he said, “and that is to use the available means to
fight.”
In January, President Trump pardoned members of the Proud Boys who were
convicted for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Included in that pardon was the group’s former chairman, Enrique Tarrio,
who had been serving a 22-year sentence and is a named defendant in the
church’s lawsuit.
Two weeks later, when church member Khaleelah Harris heard about the
trademark win, her first response was to pray for the safety of
Metropolitan, which at one point was paying $20,000 a month for
increased security.
“I just hope they don’t touch the church. That was my main concern,”
said Harris, who is pursuing ordination within the AME.
“As overwhelming as this all has been, in a sense, we have no choice,”
she said. “That’s the legacy of our church.”
Founded in 1838 and part of the nation’s first independent Black
denomination, the congregation laid the building’s cornerstone in 1881.
AME churches around the country, from Mississippi to Connecticut, paid
for its construction as their national cathedral, positioned a half-mile
from the White House.
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Rev. William Lamar IV, pastor at Metropolitan African Methodist
Episcopal Church, leads service in Washington on Sunday, March 2,
2025. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
“Washington’s been a very interesting town, because Black people
have been able to live lives here that they couldn’t live
elsewhere,” Lamar said. It was not without segregation and racism,
but “they built their own spaces to preserve their own humanity,
their own joy.”
Growing up in Macon, Georgia, Lamar first learned about Metropolitan
AME from a textbook his mother brought home. Almost 30 years later,
he became its pastor.
The decision to take on the Proud Boys
The decision to sue the Proud Boys was made with a unanimous vote of
church leaders, though Wayne Curtis, a Metropolitan member for
nearly three decades, is still cautious about the victory, not
wanting it to give the Proud Boys more attention. But he said before
a Sunday service that “it’s an opportunity to hopefully bring a
little more humility to a pretty extreme organization.”
The Proud Boys, though fractured as a movement, resurfaced at
Trump’s inauguration. Tarrio, who got five months in jail in part
for burning the second church’s banner, suggested on the social
platform X after the latest court decision that they change their
name to the “African Methodist Episcopal Boys.” His lawyer did not
respond to a request for comment.
Even if the Proud Boys change their name, the organization and some
members are still indebted to the congregation, whose legal team
plans to pursue the money. The Proud Boys have paid $1,500 so far of
the judgment, which with interest is at least $3.1 million,
according to the church’s attorneys.
“We will be unrelenting in pursuing justice,” Lamar said. “And it is
not just for Metropolitan. It is to send a clear signal to anyone
who would intimidate any house of worship or any individual of any
race, color, creed, or no creed at all.”
Three blocks from the red-brick church, the city recently demolished
its Black Lives Matter Plaza. In contrast, a bold Black Lives Matter
sign still stands outside Metropolitan, which is sandwiched between
two tall office buildings.
Inside the sanctuary on a recent afternoon, Lamar pointed to pieces
of church history: the names inscribed in marble, the places marked
in stained glass.
Lamar is working on a book about Black ancestors, whose presence he
often feels spurring his church to fight for justice. He has felt
them during the court case too.
“The victory for me was ancestral in that it said, keep going.
You’ve won this, but it’s not over.”
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