Puryear studied at Howard University, where he became a lead organizer with the anti-war ANSWER coalition and has helped organize large protests against the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Puryear and the ANSWER coalition were involved in the campaign to free the Jena 6. As a freshman at Howard in 2005, Puryear was interviewed by "The Washington Post" as an "activist-in-training" and cited his engagement with activism against gentrification, racism, the US occupation of Iraq and other issues.