University of Pennsylvania grad follows in ancestor's footsteps 142 years later

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- As Faruq Adger sits at the dining room table with his father, they look at photos that span not just generations, but more than a century.

"Pictures are very valuable in our family," said the 22-year-old while holding several photos.

Photos help the Adger family tell their story, which has deep roots in Philadelphia.

"We just had this rich family history," said Khaleel Adger, Faruq's father.

There's one photo, passed down in the family, that lives in both the past and the present.

"You can almost feel a presence in a way. It could be a tingle on the back of your neck, could be a smile," said Faruq of the ancestor pictured in the photo.

He felt that presence as he prepared to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania because more than a century ago, his ancestor, William Adger, was in the same place.

"He's my fifth great-uncle," Faruq Adger said of the man pictured in the photo.

In that family picture, William Adger is dressed dashingly in a suit with a thick moustache and his hair parted to the side. When he took the photo in the late 1800s, he may not have realized he'd seal a place in history.

A graduate of the class of 1883, William Adger was the first African American to ever graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. One hundred 42 years later, his great, great, great, great, great nephew is doing the same thing.

"He went there when he was 22, 23, my age, so I can actually understand kind of his feelings as a young man," said Faruq Adger.

The son of a father who had been enslaved and a mother who couldn't read, William Adger was raised in South Philadelphia.

"That is where a lot of the Black population was in Philadelphia," said Daina Richie Troy, director of Penn Spectrum Programs and Shared Interest Groups at Penn Alumni University of Pennsylvania.

She says Adger's parents rose to great success in Philadelphia, allowing him to choose his path.

"He had multiple degrees from the area, and his family was established," she said.

Studying divinity, William Adger forged his own way, just as his descendant, Faruq Adger, intends to do with his degree in Cultural Linguistics Anthropology. He intends to use that degree to pursue his passion for social justice.

"Why I do social justice is to almost pave the way for people, so their experience can be easier than my experience," he said.

"It is full-circle," said Khaleel Adger, "because you're dealing with the same people trying to discourage you, and then you make it."

The new graduate's family supported him on graduation day by wearing buttons that had both the photos and graduation years of William Adger and Faruq Adger.

"I would hope he would be proud of me," said the younger Adger.

It's why the new grad is now looking towards the future while paying homage to the past.

"He knew his worth," said Faruq Adger. "That's why I push myself to do it."