Howard University Professor Urges White Liberals to Commit Murder?

Calls for fiery radicalism instead of allyship: “Ask what you’re willing to burn”

In an unhinged blog post that is sparking fresh outrage across the country, a Howard University professor is calling on White left-wing activists to abandon civility and start taking cues from one of America’s most violent vigilantes — a man best remembered for murder and treason.

Dr. Stacey Patton, a journalism professor at the historically Black Howard University in Washington, D.C., published a post last week titled “John Brown Didn’t Ask Enslaved People How to Be A Good White Ally.” In it, she praised the 19th-century militant who led a deadly massacre and later tried to ignite a violent uprising against the U.S. government — encouraging today’s political allies to follow his lead.

“Be like John Brown,” Patton wrote. “Ask yourself, what am I willing to burn so somebody else can breathe?”

John Brown was no ordinary abolitionist. In 1856, he and his followers executed five men in Kansas — a brutal ambush now known as the Pottawatomie massacre. Three of the men were pro-slavery, while two had no clear ties. Brown hacked them to death with swords in front of their families.

That was just the beginning. Three years later, Brown led a raid on a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), attempting to launch a slave rebellion. The plan failed disastrously. Brown’s band of 21 men killed several civilians — including a free Black railroad worker named Heyward Shepherd — before being gunned down by local militias and U.S. Marines under the command of then-Colonel Robert E. Lee.

Brown was captured, tried for treason, and hanged in December 1859.

Yet in 2025, Patton is lionizing him as the model for modern political activism.

“He didn’t need a syllabus or a guidebook,” she wrote. “He saw the horror for what it was and decided that ending this racist f—ery mattered more than being understood.”

Patton, no stranger to controversy, previously taught at Morgan State University and has been accused of promoting radical ideologies under the guise of academia.

In her recent post, she rails against the idea of White Americans asking how to be better allies to minorities — calling the question itself “exhausting” and offensive. She argues that it places emotional labor on Black Americans to explain their pain rather than demanding action from White people.

“You don’t ask the people choking on the smoke to explain how to put out the blaze,” Patton claimed. “You go get the damn hose.”

At one point, she appears to back away from a literal call for death, writing: “If you don’t want to die like John Brown, fine. But understand that somebody always does.”

Still, the overall tone of the piece reads more like a battle cry than a lecture on allyship.

Patton’s post comes on the heels of a shocking Fourth of July attack in Texas, where far-left activist Benjamin Song allegedly opened fire on ICE agents in a targeted ambush. Song — now facing multiple attempted murder charges — is a known member of the John Brown Gun Club, a militant anti-government group that glorifies the same historical figure Patton praised.

Federal agents confirmed that Song was arrested after a months-long manhunt. He and 12 co-conspirators reportedly planned the attack over encrypted apps and dark web message boards. Prosecutors say their goal was to “ignite an armed resistance” against federal immigration enforcement.

“The fact that professors at major universities are now openly glorifying vigilantes is deeply disturbing,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). “It shows just how far our academic institutions have drifted from patriotism and public safety.”

The Counter Extremism Project has flagged the John Brown Gun Club as a “far-left paramilitary network” with active cells in multiple states.

In a brief statement to Fox News Digital, Howard University did not directly condemn Patton’s rhetoric but said it “condemns all forms of violence.”

“The University remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding and protecting the First Amendment rights of free expression,” the statement read. “However, the views and opinions expressed by individual faculty… do not reflect the official stance of Howard University.”

Critics argue that’s not enough.

“If a conservative professor called on Americans to act like Timothy McVeigh or Kyle Rittenhouse, there would be protests, firings, and federal investigations within 24 hours,” said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary. “We have a two-tier standard in this country — especially when it comes to radicalism on the left.”

Patton has declined to comment on the backlash.

The renewed glorification of John Brown raises questions about the normalization of political violence in leftist spaces. In recent years, far-left academics and activists have increasingly flirted with revolutionary rhetoric.

In 2018, a Harvard panel openly debated the “moral justification” of political violence against right-wing leaders. That was long before the 2025 assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, which left the nation stunned and has since led to growing concerns about radicalization among college students and faculty.

Now, with one professor openly calling for Americans to “burn” for the cause — and others declining to condemn it — many are asking: How far will the radical left go?