Proud Boys: who are the far-right group that backs Donald Trump?

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali.
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC

African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie

Kidnapped: The Middle Passage

Nearly Three Centuries Of Enslavement

Image of the first black members of Congress

Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom

The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200

One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice

NOW: Free At Last?

Memorial to the Victims of Lynching

The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall

Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville

Special Exhibits

Portraiture of Resistance

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

September 30, 2020

A member of the Proud Boys, right, stands in front of a counter-protester as right-wing demonstrators rally on Saturday in Portland, Oregon. Photograph: John Locher/AP

Organisation founded ahead of 2016 US election is classified by the FBI as an ‘extremist group’

By Martin Belam London,

Adam Gabbatt New York, theguardian.com

Freshly brought to the world’s attention by Donald Trump’s refusal to condemn their associations with white supremacist ideology during Tuesday night’s US presidential debate, the US neo-fascist group the Proud Boys was created by the Canadian-British far-right activist and Vice magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes in 2016 in the lead-up to Trump’s election as president.

The group, which admits men only, was classified in 2018 by the FBI as an “extremist group”, while the US research and advocacy organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists it as a hate group. The Anti-Defamation League describes the group as misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration.

It is based in America, mostly the western US, but has a presence in some other countries, notably Canada, the UK and Australia.

And while it has an outsize reputation based on the high-profile agitation events and street brawls its members are most infamous for, and now a reference in a presidential debate, the Proud Boys is believed to be a very small group comprising maybe just a few hundred members in the US.

It is one of a sheaf of far-right groups with ready access to legal firearms in the US and with overtly pro-Trump or libertarian stances and an affinity for presenting as vigilantes or paramilitaries, especially during far-right gatherings or when showing up to disrupt liberal-leaning protests…

Read the full article here

Learn more about Proud Boys here and white supremacy here.

More Breaking News here.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.