Historic Black church in D.C. gains ownership of Proud Boys’ name

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WASHINGTON – Four years after members of the far-right group Proud Boys vandalized the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in D.C., a judge has awarded the church ownership over the hate group’s name, logo and trademark.

The ruling makes it possible for the historic AME church, where Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks once attended, to confiscate any funds the group earns from sales of its merchandise using its trademark.

It comes after the Proud Boys set fire to Black Lives Matter signs on the church’s property during a December 2020 rally for Donald Trump. The church sued the group a year later.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio pleaded guilty to vandalizing the church and attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device, according to the U.S. Attorney Office. The church was previously awarded $1 million dollars for the hate crime.

Despite facing decades in prison for also attempting to violently overturn the 2020 election, Trump pardoned him on day one of his second term.

While conservatives have used the courts launch legal challenges to decades-long civil rights protections, the church’s ownership of the Proud Boys trademark shows its possible for defenders of civil rights to use the same tactics.

How the KKK went bankrupt

Notably, the Ku Klux Klan was left destitute and defunct in 1987 after attorneys representing victims of a lynching sued the hate group for its members role in the act.

In 1981, angry over an interracial jury failing to convict a Black man for allegedly killing a white police officer, two klan members went out searching for a random Black person to lynch.

While walking to a store, 19-year-old Michael Donald of Mobile, Alabama became their target. The men beat him, cut his throat and hung his body on a residential street.

Attorneys for the family and attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a $7 million lawsuit against the KKK and won. The group was ultimately required to turn over its property to Beulah Mae Donald, according to the SPLC.

It’s unclear whether the historic Black AME church’s ownership will lead to the Proud Boys’ bankruptcy, but it presents an option for communities seeking to push back against a rollback of civil rights protections.