In the Footsteps of History

When Faruq Adger, C’25, walked across the stage at Franklin Field this month to receive his diploma, he added a new chapter to a family legacy that stretches back 142 years. He follows in the footsteps of his fifth-great uncle William Adger who, in 1883, became the first African American to graduate from the College of Arts & Sciences.

The son of a formerly enslaved man from South Carolina who went on to build a successful furniture business in Philadelphia, William grew up in a household that valued education. He and his 12 siblings could all read and write, and their father, Robert, was a noted bibliophile, founder of the Afro-American Historical Society, and a member of the Banneker Institute, a literary society for African Americans. William was a part of Penn’s very small cohort of Black students who arrived at the university in 1879, along with Nathan Mossell and James Brister. William, who had planned a career in the ministry, died young, in 1885, while enrolled in the Divinity School of the Episcopal Church of Philadelphia.

Growing up, Faruq Adger had heard plenty of stories about his family’s history in Philadelphia—and seen the historical marker on South Street commemorating the life of his sixth-great grandfather, Robert—but only as a teenager, at Germantown Friends School, did he fully embrace what it meant to have this family connection to the University of Pennsylvania.

“As we progress further down the line, I see that legacy of activism and education in different family members,” says Adger, whose parents both teach at Quaker schools. “That commitment to education and social justice has always been ingrained in me,” he says. “It’s where my love of history and community engagement stems from.”

Our family line has been in Philadelphia for 177 years and it really fills me up being able to do this work and contribute to my family history.

In high school, Adger became actively involved in building community and bridging gaps among his classmates. The Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum in 2020 was pivotal, he says. “That was a turning point for me. I was a shy student, but I had a lot of ideas and wanted to help people, and it pushed me to put myself out there and become a community voice.”

Once enrolled at Penn, Adger—who one day hopes to work in a career that can advance access and inclusion—took a strategic approach to selecting his major. Though he was drawn to Africana studies, he ultimately opted to major in anthropology. (He did minor in Africana studies.)

“Anthropology is the study of people,” he says, “and if I’m going to be doing a job that requires me to be engaged with all types of people and understand different perspectives, that’s what I wanted to focus on.”

Early on in his Penn experience, in a class called Anthropology, Race, and the Making of the Modern World, taught by Deborah Thomas, R. Jean Brownlee Term Professor, Adger helped put together an exhibit at the Slought Foundation (a cultural hub on Penn’s campus now known as Public Trust) that aimed to visualize scientific racism. Inspired by protests about the Penn Museum’s collection of 1,000-plus skulls gathered by Samuel Morton in the early 19th century, the students in the class explored what it means to be used for scientific study.

“I was really engulfed in the idea of deconstructing museums and the colonization practices within them,” says Adger, “and trying to figure out how we can present material in a more constructive way that connects people, place, and culture.”

Anthropology of Voice, a class he took one-on-one with then doctoral student Nooshin Sadeghsamimi, Gr’24, set him on the path to his major and the cultural and linguistic focus within it. In that class, which looked at signs and language and how people come to discover their voice, he found a way to incorporate his passion and talent as a visual artist into his final project, a presentation about how murals can make Black American history relevant and heard through the medium of communal art. A mural Adger made with his father and brother became part of the project.

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Internships expanded Adger’s worldview and bolstered his leadership skills while also helping him dig deeper into his own community. A Penn Program for Public Service Summer Internship before his sophomore year saw him working with Sayre High School in Cobbs Creek. A year later, through a Penn Museum Summer Internship program, he worked with the community archaeological project Heritage West led by Megan Kassabaum, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Sarah Linn, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement at the Penn Museum. He conducted research and prepared website text about West Philadelphia’s Black Bottom neighborhood.

“That experience—interviewing people, talking to them—pushed me to really connect with that community and understand more about the history of Philadelphia,” says Adger, who plans to stay in the city and has his sights on graduate work.

Adger’s most recent internship, with Penn’s New Student Orientation (NSO) and Academic Initiatives team during the summer of 2024, thrust him into the world of event planning: He organized a visit for the more than 2,000 incoming students to the National Constitution Center, a new addition to the NSO agenda. “It was my first time doing anything like that, planning every part of it,” says Adger, “and it was very a rewarding process.”

Earlier this year, Adger came face to face with his great uncle William when he finally got to take The History of Women and Men of African Descent at the University of Pennsylvania, a class taught by the trio of Brian Peterson, Lecturer and Director of Penn’s Makuu Black Cultural Center; Charles Howard, C’ 00, University Chaplain and University Vice President for Social Equity & Community; and Daina Richie-Troy, W’98, Director of Penn Spectrum Programs and Shared Interest Groups. Adger had wanted to enroll in that course since he first arrived on campus.

“I got to talk about my great uncle in class,” he says, “and go to the archives and see the photos and written material they have about him. I’m going to try to do more research and help the family put together a book about the Adgers. Our family line has been in Philadelphia for 177 years and it really fills me up being able to do this work and contribute to my family history.”

Howard says it was “a joy” to have Adger in the class. “He brought his sharp mind and compassionate heart to each conversation,” Howard says. “William Adger would be very, very proud of his descendant.”