By Jessica Lea, ChurchLeaders
A Washington, D.C., judge has awarded Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church the trademarked name of the far-right group, the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys, whose members destroyed the historic Black church’s Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020, are also barred from selling their own trademarked merchandise or using their trademark without the church’s consent.
“The Church has a long history of standing up for justice and against all forms of hate,” said the church’s pastor, Rev. William H. Lamar IV, to CNN. “We are determined to hold the Proud Boys accountable, and we will continue this fight.”
The Proud Boys are a controversial group that got national attention during one of the presidential debates leading up to the 2020 election. During one of those debates, the moderator and Joe Biden asked Donald Trump to denounce white supremacy. Trump said he would be willing to denounce white supremacy but then said, “Almost everything I see is from the left wing. Not from the right wing.”
When Biden named the Proud Boys specifically as a group Trump should denounce, Trump said, “The Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem.”
On Dec. 12, 2020, members of the Proud Boys were filmed destroying Black Lives Matter signs belonging to churches following a “stop the steal” event in Washington, D.C. One of those churches was Metropolitan AME, and another was Asbury United Methodist Church.
On Jan. 4, 2021, Metropolitan AME Church sued the Proud Boys “for engaging in acts of terror and vandalizing church property in an effort to intimidate the Church and silence its support for racial justice.” The church requested damages and a jury trial. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and other Proud Boys members were later convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In July 2021, Tarrio pleaded guilty to burning a Black Lives Matter banner from Asbury United Methodist Church. He also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device and was sentenced to five months in jail.
In the summer of 2023, the Metropolitan AME Church won a default ruling ordering the Proud Boys to pay $2.8 million in damages, which the Proud Boys did not do.
Tarrio was serving a 22-year prison sentence when President Donald Trump took office and granted clemency to Tarrio and more than 1,500 others charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s decision freed some people from prison and dismissed numerous pending cases.
The decision awarding Metropolitan AME the rights to the Proud Boys trademark was handed down Monday, Feb. 3, by Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier. It prevents the group from using its own name and symbols without the church’s permission.
It “also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath,” reports The New York Times.
In a statement posted to X, Tarrio responded to Bosier’s ruling, saying, “As a follower of Jesus Christ, I see disturbing parallels between this church’s actions toward the individuals and families involved and the Pharaoh’s oppression of the Israelites in the story of Moses.”
Tarrio accused the church of engaging “in a campaign of harassment and falsehoods, evidenced by their every filed motion.” He accused the judge of denying him and others due process and accused the government of injustice. Tarrio compared the judge and the church to Judas, calling for an audit of the church, for its nonprofit status to be revoked, and for Bosier to be impeached.
Tarrio said that God is with him and would vindicate him.
“Though the corrupt judicial system unjustly confined me two weeks ago, my faith in Jesus Christ has set me free,” he said. “I pray for their sake they do not suffer the same fate as Pharaoh. However, let it be known: retribution is inevitable.”
ChurchLeaders has reached out to Rev. William H. Lamar IV for comment.
First published February 5, 2025
