Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the twenty-fourth in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events.
On this day, the James whispers the names, of those who crossed oceans in chains, sold like cattle, traded like goods, their dreams ripped from their hands, their cries swallowed by the land that claimed them. We remember, I remember, the blood in the soil, the roots tangled with sorrow, the seeds of pain.
1619 etched in our bones, a legacy of loss, bodies broken, souls tossed to the wind like ash, like dust, like memories we can’t forget. They came, they were taken, their lives bartered for bread, their spirits fed to the hunger of a nation built on their backs.
But today, I stand, a descendant of resilience, carrying their stories in my skin, their strength in my veins. We’ve walked miles, built bridges with our tears, forged paths through the wilderness of history’s scars. Yet the journey is far from done, the work still calls, healing still hangs in the air like a prayer, like a hymn waiting to be sung by all of us, together.
We carry the weight of their shackles in our steps, the echoes of their cries in our songs, but we also carry hope, a fire lit by their fight, a vision of a future where the chains are broken, where the rivers run clean with truth, where justice flows like the James, steady, deep, unstoppable.
On this day, I remember, I remember the beginning, but I also see the end, the horizon gleaming with the light of all we’ve yet to become. We remember so we can heal, we heal so we can rise, we rise so we can be free, not just in body, but in spirit, in soul, in every breath, in every step we take toward a future that honors their past and breathes life into the dream they dared to dream.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #Remembering #HumanRights #OnThisDay #History #Healing