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 86th 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
Dr. Welsing, your words were maps carved in fire, a torch for the lost, a hymn in the choir of those who’ve sung survival through the choke of history, your voice, a blade cutting clean through the mystery.
You spoke of melanin as more than hue, but as armor, as rhythm, as truth overdue. You dared to name what they buried in lies, exposing their fears dressed in white disguise.
Your theories weren’t whispers—they roared like a storm, a call to arms, to love, to reform. You told us our Blackness was a sun-kissed crown, a throne they envied, yet sought to drown.
I hold your words like sacred seeds, planting them deep where my spirit bleeds. Your lessons remind me the war isn’t fair, but still, we rise, with fists in the air.
You taught me the chessboard isn’t just a game, it’s a battlefield where they rewrite our name. But you gave us the tools, the codes to decode, a path to reclaim what history stole.
Dr. Welsing, you live in the pulse of my skin, in the fight, in the love, in the will to begin again, and again, until justice arrives, until Black joy not only survives but thrives.
For every light you lit in the shadow of hate, for the courage to challenge the lie of “great,” I thank you, ancestor, for clearing my way— your wisdom, your fire, will never decay.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #RestInPower #DrFrancisCressWelsing