DC’s historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church won the Proud Boys’ trademarks in February. Now it’s selling merchandise that repurposes the far-right group’s logo.
For only $20, you can order a shirt that says, “Stay Proud, Stay Black” in the group’s signature black-and-yellow color scheme, or another that reads, “Stay Proud, Black Lives Matter.” Metropolitan AME also offers shirts that say “Proud Boys Cancelled” and “I’m a Proud Girl.” Proceeds from the sales will go to a community justice fund the church is setting up.
The church, where Frederick Douglass, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Obama have worshipped, sued the Proud Boys in January 2021 after they destroyed Black Lives Matter signs during the mayhem that ensued around a December 2020 rally that followed Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio pleaded guilty to the act, and the group was ordered to pay the church more than $1 million in 2023 but it group failed to do so. So the church now owns its trademarks.
Its pastor, the Rev. William H. Lamar IV, told the AP the merch sales are “our way of leveraging something that was intended for evil.” Metropolitan AME plans more Proud Boys merchandise for Juneteenth and Pride, Lamar said.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
