He committed extreme violence that American conservative social forces have a benefit in demonizing, but also he fought, unequivocally, for a cause that was radical for his time in a way that is radical to us even now, and there are reasons why that is so. He killed white supremacists in their homes, and organized a revolt that would involve arming every slave in the south. This was, literally, the worst fear of the entire South. However, the first casualty of Harper's Ferry was a free black man who was a baggage handler on a train he seized. White Supremacists as part of rehabilitating the South's legacy following slavery, built many monuments, which is the reason for the all the forts and statues and boats we have named after them. On such statue was built in Harper's Ferry to that freeman (Hayward Shepard). Tactics like this muddy the message of revolutionary forces which threaten entrenched powers by demonizing certain actions with examples void of context while at the same time avoiding the underlying issues which produce revolutionary actions like Browns Raid. IMO, Brown is a deservedly controversial figure, but that he is "so controversial", I think, is mostly a testament to how little we as a society, or at least the powers that be which fear a John Brown, have REALLY changed in some ways since then.
