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

Well, it's a day many years in the making for thousands of students. The result of hard work, dedication, and of course, the support and sacrifice of their parents. This was graduation day at the University of Pennsylvania. But for one man in that crowd of caps and gowns, this was a full circle moment connecting him with his family's rich history, which also happens to have changed the course of history for that storied Ivy League institution. Race and culture reporter Teronda Thomas has the story tonight. Pictures is very valuable in our family because they tell the story of the Ager family. We just had this rich family history. But there's one photo, a very very beautiful picture. A photo that lives in both the past. It's a family picture and the present. It's like could be a tangle in the back of your neck, could be a smile. Farooq Ager feels that presence as he graduates from the University of Pennsylvania because more than a century ago, his ancestor was in the same place. He's my fifth grade uncle. William Ager, class of 1883, the first African-Amean to ever graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. 142 years later, his great great great great nephew is doing the same thing. He went there when he was 22, 23, so my age. The son of a father who had been enslaved and a mother who couldn't read. William Ager was raised in South Philadelphia. Around that area, you had almost an entire town, a town that would have been a complete black community. Dana Richie Troy with the University of Pennsylvania says Ager's parents rose to great success in Philadelphia, allowing him to choose his path. He had multiple degrees from the area. Studying divinity, William Ager forged his own way just as Farooq Ager intends to do with his degree in cultural linguistics anthropology. I do social justice is to almost pave the way for people. It is full circle cuz you you're dealing with that saying people try to discourage you and you and you and then you make it. 1883 and then you know 2025. It's why the new grad is looking towards the future. I would hope he would be proud of me while paying homage to the past. He knew his worth and so that's why I pushed myself to do it.