❓WHAT HAPPENED: A UNC professor was reinstated after a threat assessment regarding political violence concerns and ties to a far-left gun club.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Teaching Associate Professor Dwayne Dixon and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
📍WHEN & WHERE: October 3, 2025, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I will not be intimidated.” – Dwayne Dixon
🎯IMPACT: The decision to reinstate Dixon follows pressure from the ACLU and highlights ongoing debates about free speech and political violence.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reinstated Teaching Associate Professor Dwayne Dixon after a supposedly detailed threat assessment, despite concerns over ties to a far-left gun club and support for political violence. This decision has sparked controversy, with Andrew Kolvet, a friend of assassinated conservative organizer Charlie Kirk and spokesman for his Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization, describing it as “unbelievable.”
Dean Stoyer, Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing at the university, claimed that the assessment found no evidence that Dixon posed a threat to the university community or breached any university policies. The reinstatement followed a threat of legal action from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina, which argued that Dixon’s constitutional rights to free speech and association under the First Amendment were being violated by his initial suspension.
Dixon, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, is linked to Redneck Revolt, which is “an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club,” according to the Counter Extremism Project. Fox News Digital alleges that Dixon personally “advocat[ed] for armed political action” at a 2018 panel hosted by Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, “I’m here to smash White supremacist capitalism, not defend civil society.”
Notably, the John Brown Club—believed to be a rebranding of or spiritual successor to the John Brown Gun Club, named for 19th-century abolitionist and insurrectionist John Brown—posted flyers at Georgetown University after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, cheering the murder and inviting students to join “The only political group that celebrates when Nazis die.”
“Why is UNC employing a monster who is a member of a group celebrating political assassination?” Kolvet demanded, adding that “Dixon should be fired immediately. This is not about free speech. This is about inciting and fomenting more political violence.”
Unbelievable!! UNC Professor Dwayne Dixon — who was revealed to have ties to an offshoot of John Brown Gun Club, a militant far-left group — has been reinstated by UNC administrators.
This comes after a flyer from the group was spotted by TPUSA students at Georgetown that… pic.twitter.com/T0oIMKllNd
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) October 3, 2025
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