Dr. Butch Ware is a lifelong activist, organizer and educator. Ware earned his Ph.D. in history in 2004 from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught African history, African American history, Islamic history, and the history of revolutionary struggles against imperialism, capitalism, and white supremacy.

He is currently an associate professor in the department of History at the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the founder and director of the Initiative for the Study of Race, Religion, and Revolution (ISRRAR). His first book, The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa, explores the history of African Muslim communities and their forms of resistance to the slave-trade and colonialism. He is the author of multiple articles on the history of slavery, resistance, abolition in Islamic Africa and the Atlantic World, his most recent co-authored book Jihad of the Pen, explores Muslim mysticism in West Africa. 

Ware was the Green Party Vice Presidential nominee in 2024, finishing third in the race for the White House. He is currently the Green Party candidate for Governor in the state of California, promoting a vision of economic, environmental, and social justice.