The historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in D.C., which now controls the “Proud Boys” trademark, has sued a New York chapter of the white nationalist group for using its name and familiar black and yellow wreath logo in online recruiting and merchandise sales.
Metropolitan AME has filed a lawsuit in federal court in the Southern District of New York, against the Hudson Valley Proud Boys Chapter, its president William Pepe, and 100 “John Does,” claiming trademark infringement.
The Aug. 4 filing is the latest in a five-year legal battle between the church and the white nationalist group.
After a pro-Donald Trump rally in December 2020, Proud Boys destroyed Black Lives Matter signs at two historically Black churches during a violent night in the city.
In 2023, a judge in D.C. awarded the church $2.8 million in damages, condemning the Proud Boys’ “hateful and overtly racist conduct.”
After the Proud Boys paid only $1,500 of the judgment in February 2025, the court gave the church use of the group’s name and symbols, and said the church could seize money the Proud Boys made through merchandise sales that include the trademark.
The church began using the Proud Boys’ yellow and black color scheme on its website, and started selling look-alike shirts with lines like “Stay Proud, Stay Black.”
Demand to stop using Proud Boys name
In the recent New York suit, the church said it sent a cease-and-desist letter to Pepe, demanding the Hudson Valley chapter stop using the Proud Boys name in its communications.
The church said it “is trying to evolve the ‘Proud Boys’ name to be associated with the Church’s mission of love and humanity, rather than white supremacy, hatred, and violence, and in doing so transform and improve the goodwill the Church inherited in connection therewith.” The Proud Boys group has always denied the white supremacy allegation.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, whose 22-year prison sentence was pardoned by President Trump after a conviction in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, disparaged the court’s ruling that awarded the group’s trademark to the church: “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments, and orders issued against me,” he said. In a Rolling Stone interview, he elaborated, “I wipe my ass with it.”
The Hudson Valley chapter, Pepe, and the John Does had not filed any court documents in the New York trademark suit, as of Monday morning.
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