Mark Bray, an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University and a widely recognized expert on anti-fascist movements, found himself at the center of a storm this week as he and his family attempted to flee the United States following a barrage of death threats and a campaign to have him fired. The dramatic episode, which unfolded at Newark Airport on the night of October 9, 2025, raises urgent questions about academic freedom, political polarization, and the safety of scholars who study contentious subjects.
Bray’s ordeal began after he was targeted by the Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative student group, and other right-leaning activists. According to Patch, the group launched an online petition demanding Bray’s dismissal, alleging he had endorsed political violence in past interviews and labeling him “Dr. Antifa.” The petition gained traction after Fox News covered the story, and it quickly amassed over 1,100 signatures by Thursday afternoon. The group’s treasurer, Megyn Doyle, told Fox News Digital, “When you have a teacher that so often promotes political violence ... we believe that it puts conservative students at risk for Antifa to come in.”
Bray, however, has consistently denied any affiliation with antifa groups. Speaking to The Associated Press from a hotel near Newark Airport, he stated, “I do not have any affiliation with any antifa group and don’t plan to.” He added, “I am not now, nor have I ever been, part of any kind of antifascist or anti-racist organization – I just haven’t. I’m a professor. I’m a professor of the history of the left.” Despite these denials, his critics have continued to press for his removal, and the rhetoric around his case has escalated sharply.
The situation intensified after President Donald Trump, on the same day as Bray’s attempted departure, declared antifa an international terrorist organization and vowed to use “the full weight” of the federal government against it. This move, as reported by Patch and AP, was widely seen by Bray and his supporters as part of a broader effort to conflate protest with terrorism. Bray told CNN on Wednesday, “They label anyone they don’t like with antifa-aligned, such as myself, and try to equate protest with terrorism. And that has really dangerous implications for civil liberties in this country.”
Bray’s troubles reached a crescendo in late September, when he received a death threat that included his home address—an act known as doxing. He recounted on social media, “I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’ I have been forced to move my classes online.” The threats, which also targeted his family, prompted Bray to move his three classes to a virtual format and make urgent plans to relocate to Spain for the academic year.
The harrowing events at Newark Airport added another layer of mystery and anxiety to Bray’s predicament. According to NJ Advance Media and Patch, Bray and his family had checked their bags, passed through security, and were undergoing a facial recognition scan when error messages started appearing. Suddenly, their flight reservation vanished. “Someone canceled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second,” Bray posted on Bluesky social media. “We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’” Airline employees were reportedly baffled by the cancellation and could offer no explanation. Bray and his family have since rebooked another flight and hope to leave the U.S. by the end of the week.
Bray’s case has sparked heated debate on campus and beyond. The Rutgers teachers union issued a strong statement condemning Turning Point USA’s actions, arguing, “Turning Point’s attack is part of an escalating effort by the far right to suppress the speech, teaching, and scholarship of faculty who do not conform to their movement’s politics.” The union called the campaign to have Bray fired “an affront to Rutgers’ values of academic freedom, as well as to Turning Point’s self-proclaimed commitment to a culture of open debate.”
Meanwhile, other students at Rutgers have pushed back against Turning Point USA’s campaign. A separate petition, launched by students opposed to the conservative group, calls for Rutgers to ban the Turning Point USA chapter from campus. As of early October 2025, that petition had garnered more than 1,700 signatures, reflecting the deep divisions and intense activism on both sides of the issue.
Bray’s scholarship has long made him a lightning rod for controversy. He rose to national prominence in 2017 after publishing Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, a book that traces the history and tactics of militant anti-fascist movements in the U.S. and abroad. In a 2017 appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bray said there were circumstances where violent self-defense is “a legitimate response” to violence by white supremacists and neo-Nazis. However, he clarified to the AP that he “does not wish violence upon anyone.”
Bray has also donated half the proceeds from his book to a legal defense fund for people arrested while protesting fascism, a move that his critics have seized upon to further their claims. Yet, as Bray told NJ Advance Media, antifa is “an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups” that counter neo-Nazis and white supremacists at protests, not a single organization with formal membership.
Rutgers University has largely declined to comment on the specifics of Bray’s situation, citing personnel privacy. However, spokesperson Patti Zielinski told AP that the university is “committed to providing a secure environment — to learn, teach, work and research — where all members of our community can share their opinions without fear of intimidation or harassment.” She reiterated Rutgers’ commitment to upholding free speech and academic freedom as fundamental values.
For his part, Bray sees the campaign against him as part of a broader pattern of manufactured outrage and attempts to stifle dissent on college campuses. “This is an example of the Trump administration trying to conflate protest with terrorism and public scholarship in a university with extremism,” he said to the AP. “Ultimately, it’s manufactured outrage to create a boogeyman term to demonize protests.”
As Bray and his family prepare to start a new chapter in Spain, he plans to continue teaching his Rutgers courses remotely, hoping to return to campus next fall. The episode has left many at Rutgers and across the academic world reflecting on the increasingly fraught landscape for scholars who study—and speak out about—controversial topics. The debate over free speech, academic freedom, and campus safety shows no sign of abating, and Bray’s story is likely to remain a touchstone for those grappling with these thorny questions.
For now, the fate of one professor and his family, caught between political crossfire and personal peril, remains a vivid illustration of the stakes involved when scholarship collides with the fury of America’s culture wars.
