The D.C. church that beat the Proud Boys in court now owns their name
“There was no disagreement as to whether we should engage,” says Metropolitan AME pastor Bill Lamar, “but there was definitely a risk calculation.”
William H. Lamar IV is pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. In February, a judge granted the historic Black church the rights to the name Proud Boys, which the church sued for after the far-right group didn’t make payment on an earlier suit over members’ vandalism of the church.
What was your initial reaction to this ruling? And what does this victory mean for the congregation?
We were elated that in this case, justice prevailed. American justice today tends to favor perpetrators and not victims, as with the commutations and pardons for the insurrectionists. But in this instance, for us to receive justice from the American justice system is something to mark and to celebrate.
