WASHINGTON – There is so much history between the walls of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has hosted funerals for Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and opened its pews to American presidents and civil rights icons.

It made history again this year: Thanks to a lawsuit, Metropolitan AME now controls the trademark to the Proud Boys, the far-right group that once vandalized the church’s property in Washington.

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.

“The act of destroying these signs was not just alcohol-lubricated, infantile frat-boy stuff,” said the Rev. William H. Lamar IV, Metropolitan’s pastor.

“This is a softer version of cross-burning, designed to keep us quiet,” he said.

It was political intimidation, according to Lamar. A judge awarded the church $2.8 million in damages in 2023, condemning the Proud Boys’ “hateful and overtly racist conduct.”

In February, after the Proud Boys didn’t pay, the court gave the church use of the group’s name and symbols — seen on its black-and-yellow gear and laurel wreath logo.

The church can seize money the Proud Boys make through merchandise sales. And the congregation has begun to sell lookalike shirts on its website with lines like “Stay Proud, Stay Black.” It plans to offer similar apparel for Pride Month and Juneteenth, with proceeds going to a community justice fund.

Lamar said it’s “our way of leveraging something that was intended for evil.”

Despite the humor and subversion, Lamar sees the lawsuit as part of a long line of civil rights activism that has relied on the courts, from Black women who successfully sued the Ku Klux Klan to lawsuits that pushed desegregation.

“Metropolitan institutionally is doing what Black women and men have always done,” he said, “and that is to use the available means to fight.”

In January, President Trump pardoned members of the Proud Boys who were convicted for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Included in that pardon was the group’s former chairman, Enrique Tarrio, who had been serving a 22-year sentence and is a named defendant in the church’s lawsuit.

Two weeks later, when church member Khaleelah Harris heard about the trademark win, her first response was to pray for the safety of Metropolitan, which at one point was paying $20,000 a month for increased security.

“I just hope they don’t touch the church. That was my main concern,” said Harris, who is pursuing ordination within the AME.

“As overwhelming as this all has been, in a sense, we have no choice,” she said. “That’s the legacy of our church.”

Founded in 1838 and part of the nation’s first independent Black denomination, the congregation laid the building’s cornerstone in 1881. AME churches around the country, from Mississippi to Connecticut, paid for its construction as their national cathedral, positioned a half-mile from the White House.

“Washington’s been a very interesting town, because Black people have been able to live lives here that they couldn’t live elsewhere,” Lamar said. It was not without segregation and racism, but “they built their own spaces to preserve their own humanity, their own joy.”

Growing up in Macon, Georgia, Lamar first learned about Metropolitan AME from a textbook his mother brought home. Almost 30 years later, he became its pastor.

The decision to sue the Proud Boys was made with a unanimous vote of church leaders, though Wayne Curtis, a Metropolitan member for nearly three decades, is still cautious about the victory, not wanting it to give the Proud Boys more attention. But he said before a Sunday service that “it’s an opportunity to hopefully bring a little more humility to a pretty extreme organization.”

The Proud Boys, though fractured as a movement, resurfaced at Trump’s inauguration. Tarrio, who got five months in jail in part for burning the second church’s banner, suggested on the social platform X after the latest court decision that they change their name to the “African Methodist Episcopal Boys.” His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Even if the Proud Boys change their name, the organization and some members are still indebted to the congregation, whose legal team plans to pursue the money. The Proud Boys have paid $1,500 so far of the judgment, which with interest is at least $3.1 million, according to the church’s attorneys.

“We will be unrelenting in pursuing justice,” Lamar said. “And it is not just for Metropolitan. It is to send a clear signal to anyone who would intimidate any house of worship or any individual of any race, color, creed, or no creed at all.”

Three blocks from the red-brick church, the city recently demolished its Black Lives Matter Plaza. In contrast, a bold Black Lives Matter sign still stands outside Metropolitan, which is sandwiched between two tall office buildings.

Inside the sanctuary on a recent afternoon, Lamar pointed to pieces of church history: the names inscribed in marble, the places marked in stained glass.

Lamar is working on a book about Black ancestors, whose presence he often feels spurring his church to fight for justice. He has felt them during the court case too.

“The victory for me was ancestral in that it said, keep going. You’ve won this, but it’s not over.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.