by Samaria Bailey
Philadelphia Tribune
Timothy Welbeck, a civil rights attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a Temple University Africology professor, said that history is the reason he, his wife and three children attended the festival.
“It was important, particularly for my children, to see this as part of our cultural heritage, to remember the day we celebrated knowing that we were free and what that means for us today,” said Welbeck. “The idea of knowing that we are liberated people, that we came from a people that not only endured slavery, but we rose above it — we are celebrating that day.”
