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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor with ties to an anti-fascist gun group has been reinstated after being placed on administrative leave earlier this week over concerns that he was voicing support for political violence.
“The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has performed a thorough threat assessment of Teaching Associate Professor Dwayne Dixon based on recent reports and expressions of concern that he is an advocate for political violence,” Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing Dean Stoyer said in a statement Friday.
Following the conclusion of the investigation, school officials said they “found no basis to conclude that he poses a threat to University students, staff and faculty, or has engaged in conduct that violates University policy.”
“As a result, the University is reinstating Professor Dixon to his faculty responsibilities, effective immediately,” Stoyer added.
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The decision comes one day after the ACLU of North Carolina penned a letter to UNC threatening legal action if Dixon was not reinstated, pointing to allegations of Dixon’s Constitutional rights being violated by the university.
“If UNC fails to reinstate Professor Dixon and rescind all the restrictions on his speech detailed above, he is prepared to file suit to defend his rights to freely associate and to be free of retaliation and viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment,” the letter reads.
In a statement to the INDY, Dixon slammed the university administration’s initial decision to place him on administrative leave, while thanking his supporters who condemned his removal.
“I will not be intimidated,” Dixon told the outlet. “With the solidarity and help of so many, I wish to enact another possibility: one of vibrant, conscientious, ethical engagement, without fear of reprisal or silencing.”
Dixon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
While university officials cited a formal threat assessment in their decision to reinstate Dixon, some students view the controversy through a different lens. Rowan Hughes, a sophomore at UNC and a member of Bridge UNC — a student group dedicated to fostering dialogue across political divides — said that professors should be able to engage in political life outside the classroom “as long as they’re not doing anything illegal.”
“We don’t want to create centrists,” he explained to Fox News Digital. “We want people who are strong-willed and really kind of believe their perspective, but are also willing to listen to others.”
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Hughes acknowledged that the issue becomes more complicated inside the classroom, where he sees a “blurry line” between healthy debate and undue influence.
“I don’t love it when a teacher hijacks the entire classroom and really injects their biases in,” he said, but added that hearing a range of perspectives is valuable — provided that professors don’t force their views on students.
For Hughes, the university’s mission should be about equipping students to think critically rather than insulating them from professors’ political beliefs.
Dixon was placed on administrative leave earlier this week after Fox News Digital reported on his involvement with Redneck Revolt, an organization established in 2016 and described by the Counter Extremism Project as a “far-left group” that “stands against capitalism and the concept of the nation-state, including its symbols such as police, prisons and courts.”
According to the Counter Extremism Project, Redneck Revolt is “an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club,” which prompted outcry last week after posting flyers at Georgetown University celebrating the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Fox News Digital previously obtained a video of a 2018 panel hosted by Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, in which Dixon spoke for about 30 minutes about Redneck Revolt’s presence at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, while advocating for armed political action – painted as self-defense – against White supremacists, Nazis and fascists. He went on to describe the “far-right” as “filled with murderous rage,” but at no point defined the term “far-right.”
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“Let the Nazis assemble and speak in public, and they will attack you, and then they’re going to come for the people you love,” said Dixon. “To paraphrase Robert F. Williams … Robert F. Williams of Monroe, North Carolina, my struggle is against White supremacy, not for civil rights. I’m here to smash White supremacist capitalism, not defend civil society.”
The video was initially posted to the center’s YouTube page on Feb. 3, 2018, and remained public until Fox News Digital’s Monday report that Dixon had been placed on administrative leave.
The initial decision to sideline Dixon sparked an uproar on UNC’s campus, with members of the university’s community rallying in support – and against – the professor on Wednesday.
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Dozens of students and faculty members convened in front of the school’s South Building, with many individuals wearing masks and holding flags, WRAL reported.
Signs saying “Reinstate Dixon” and “UNC, Stop Taking Orders From Fascists” were reportedly placed on the building’s steps as individuals from various campus organizations spoke to the crowd.
“I’m 100% OK with this demonstration here because I’m a free speech advocate, and I think that even if it’s not something I agree with, I think everyone has a right to fight for what they believe in,” Jack D’Entremont, a UNC student and member of the UNC GOP and local Turning Point chapters, told WRAL. “But you fight with words, you don’t fight with calls to violence or actual violence, and I think there’s a lot of room for education here for everyone involved.”
The decision to remove – and subsequently reinstate – Dixon comes as officials throughout the country are looking to turn down the temperature surrounding violent political rhetoric following the recent assassination of Kirk and an attack on a Dallas ICE facility by a gunman who allegedly possessed left-wing views.
“The average student [at UNC] is probably going to be in support or not upset by what happened to Kirk and it’s awful,” D’Entremont told WRAL. “Regardless of his beliefs, you shouldn’t be killed for your beliefs, especially ’cause actions were nothing but good, all he did was talk to people. If you’re glorifying it, people have a right to be upset by that.”
Dixon previously faced misdemeanor charges as a result of his participation in Redneck Revolt, though he has not been convicted. In 2018, he was charged with simple assault on the night a Confederate statue, named “Silent Sam,” was torn down on the UNC campus, but the charges were later dropped.
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He also faced a gun crime charge stemming from his connection to an anti-KKK protest in nearby Durham, North Carolina, at which the KKK was present.
Both Dixon and Redneck Revolt were sued by the city of Charlottesville after the Unite the Right rally, with the city accusing the organization of violating anti-paramilitary law.
On Wednesday, Redneck Revolt posted a message to its website saying that the organization disbanded in 2019. A page highlighting Dixon’s activism under a tab called “Analysis” was also removed, but has been archived.
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Dixon is a teaching associate professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the university, according to his biography page. He is set to return to his faculty responsibilities immediately.
“The University continues to reaffirm its commitment to rigorous debate, respectful engagement, and open dialogue in support of free speech, while fulfilling our responsibility to protect the physical safety of the Carolina community,” Stoyer added.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
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