The End of the “Proud Boys” – How a Black Church Took Over the Name of a Hate Movement

Many readers are now asking what became of the Proud Boys – that far-right group that once served as Trump’s street army and played a central role in the storming of the Capitol. The answer is as unexpected as it is symbolic: their leaders were convicted, many of them later pardoned by President Trump – their structures are fractured, and even the name “Proud Boys” no longer belongs to them."

t is one of those ironic turns that only America can produce. One of the oldest Black churches in the country, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., now owns the trademark rights to a movement that once tried to intimidate it. The name “Proud Boys,” a symbol of violence, machismo, and white nationalism, now officially belongs to a congregation whose roots go back to the time of slavery – a place that once honored Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks.

To the best of knowledge and belief, Mad Aster is a shell company associated with the Proud Boys, created solely for the purpose of protecting the Proud Boys trademark from an adverse judgment resulting from the Church’s lawsuit against PBI, as well as from potential claims by other creditors of PBI and the Proud Boys.

Court documents show that “Mad Aster” was nothing more than a front company – founded to save the name “Proud Boys” when the legal noose had already begun to tighten. According to the lawsuit, the company was registered only days after the dissolution of the original Proud Boys International LLC, apparently with the sole purpose of shielding the trademark from an impending judgment by the Metropolitan AME Church and from potential creditor claims. A legal shield, empty in substance but rich in intent.

The story begins on a cold December evening in 2020. After a pro-Trump rally, members of the Proud Boys marched through downtown Washington. Around 10 p.m. they reached the red-brick building at 1518 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20005, just a few hundred meters from the White House. Before the eyes of bystanders, they tore a large “Black Lives Matter” banner from the façade of the Metropolitan AME Church, carried it triumphantly through the streets, shouted racist slogans, and finally burned it near Black Lives Matter Plaza. The scene, filmed and circulated online, was no accident but an act of political intimidation – a symbolic threat against a Black congregation that has endured for nearly two centuries.

“That was not youthful foolishness or drunken mischief,” Reverend William H. Lamar IV later said. “It was a milder form of cross burning. A message: Be silent, or we will return.”

Founded in 1838, the church had repeatedly learned to transform violence into determination. After the attack, its church council unanimously decided to file suit. In June 2023, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, in the case Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church v. Proud Boys International LLC et al. (Case No. 2021 CA 003356 B), issued a so-called default judgment – a ruling that is made when a party fails to respond or refuses to appear in court. The Proud Boys had neither responded nor sent attorneys. The result: 2.8 million dollars in damages.

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., a historic Black church, filed suit against Proud Boys International LLC and its then-leader Enrique Tarrio. The complaint described how, on December 12, 2020, hundreds of Proud Boys members traveled to Washington to deliberately commit acts of violence, destroy property, and intimidate the Black Lives Matter movement. The Proud Boys allegedly stormed the church property, tore down banners, set fires, and tried to silence the church’s voice for social justice. The lawsuit described the incident as part of a “new and dangerous chapter of white supremacist violence.” The aim of the case was to hold the Proud Boys accountable for this act of terror and to protect the church from further attacks.

The sum was composed of several components. The church had lost more than a banner. The attack damaged parts of the façade and lighting – repairs that cost between 10,000 and 15,000 dollars. But the physical damage was only the beginning. After the incident, the congregation received hate mail and threats. Families stayed away from services, elderly members stopped attending at night. To ensure safety, the church had to hire a private security firm and later armed guards. According to financial records, security costs totaled more than 400,000 dollars over two years.

The largest portion of the sum consisted of punitive damages – two million dollars imposed by the judge to sanction the racist motive behind the attack. In his reasoning, he wrote that the Proud Boys had “deliberately targeted symbols of Black self-affirmation to instill fear and intimidate a congregation.” The court described the act as a form of “terrorizing demonstration.” An additional 350,000 dollars were awarded for emotional distress, as members reported ongoing fear, depression, and trauma. Reverend Lamar said some had stopped attending church after decades. “They feared that what happened in 2020 was just the beginning,” he said.

When the Proud Boys failed to pay, the church moved to enforce the judgment. On February 5, 2025, the Superior Court ordered the transfer of the Proud Boys’ trademarks, logos, and symbols – including the yellow laurel wreath emblem – to the Metropolitan AME Church. The ruling also expressly prohibited the group from selling merchandise with its name or logo and authorized the church to seize revenue from such sales.

Since then, the church has begun to reinterpret the symbol. On its website, it sells T-shirts reading “Stay Proud, Stay Black,” soon to be followed by collections for Pride Month and Juneteenth. Proceeds go to a “Community Justice Fund.” For Pastor Lamar, this is more than satire: “It is our way of turning something intended for evil into something good.” But the victory came at a cost. Security measures continued to cost the congregation around 20,000 dollars a month, and many members feared retaliation. “I first prayed that they would not harm us,” said Khaleelah Harris, who is pursuing ordination within the AME Church. “But we had no choice. This is our story – we fight with everything we have.” 20.000 Dollar im Monat, und viele Mitglieder fürchteten Racheakte. „Ich habe zuerst gebetet, dass sie uns nichts antun“, sagte Khaleelah Harris, die auf ihre Ordination innerhalb der AME Church hinarbeitet. „Aber wir hatten keine Wahl. Das ist unsere Geschichte – wir kämpfen, mit allem, was wir haben.“

“The storm marches of the Proud Boys belong to the past – but in today’s practices of the ICE agency, intimidation has merely taken on an institutional form.”

The former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who had admitted to burning the BLM banner, was sentenced on September 5, 2023, by the federal court in Washington D.C. to 22 years in prison for his role in organizing the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol – the harshest sentence ever imposed in a seditious conspiracy case. Tarrio was held at the Federal Correctional Institution Pollock in Louisiana when President Trump, on January 21, 2025, signed a blanket pardon for more than 1,500 participants in the Capitol assault, including him. Two days later Tarrio was released and returned to Florida. Barely free, he reacted to his movement’s defeat with mockery: they could call themselves the “African Methodist Episcopal Boys,” he joked on X. But in truth, the remark sounded like the confession of a man who understood that his organization had lost everything – even its name.

On October 18, 2025, Tarrio appeared in Miami, on the sidelines of the “No Kings” protests where thousands demonstrated against Trump’s power politics. The photo taken that day shows him in the crowd, wearing a black T-shirt reading “Warboys Studios” – a label from the Proud Boys milieu, named after the fanatical warrior figures from *Mad Max: Fury Road*. The martial symbolism fit Tarrio’s self-staging: a man trying to project strength while his movement lay in legal and moral ruins.

Today, according to attorneys, the Proud Boys owe the church more than 3.1 million dollars including interest, but have so far paid only 1,500. The Metropolitan AME has announced its intention to continue collecting every cent. “We will be unrelenting in our pursuit of justice,” said Lamar. “Not only for us, but for every congregation, every faith, every color. No one should believe they can cover houses of worship in hate without consequences.”

In front of the church once again stands a large sign reading “Black Lives Matter.” It stands where fire once was – and symbolizes what Pastor Lamar calls the “legacy of resistance.” “Our ancestors showed us how to fight,” he says. “With dignity. With faith. With law.” Anyone now wondering what became of “Black Lives Matter” can find the answer in our article “The Vanished Movement – Where Black Lives Matter Really Stands” at the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/die-verschwundene-bewegung-wo-black-lives-matter-wirklich-steht/

Perhaps this is the true meaning of this process: that a movement which claimed pride for itself has now been surpassed by people who have never found pride in aggression, but in perseverance. The Proud Boys may call themselves whatever they wish – but the name that once sought to spread fear now belongs to those who never had to kneel to know what dignity means.