Timothy Welbeck is a leader in the fight for justice and racial equity. A Civil Rights Attorney by training and practice, Timothy is a scholar of law, race, and cultural studies.
Timothy presently serves as the Director for the Center of Anti-Racism at Temple University, where he has led the Center from its inception to one of the leading institutions of its kind in the country. Prior to serving as the Director of the Center for Anti-Racism, Timothy was an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Africology and African American Studies, where he taught numerous courses including "Hip-Hop and Black Culture." His scholarly work focuses on contemporary issues of racial identity in America, the intersection of racial classifications and the law in the American context, contemporary African and African American cultural transmissions, and hip-hop as a microcosm of the Black experience. Timothy's forthcoming book “No City for Young Men: Hip-Hop and the Narrative of Marginalization,” explores how hip-hop communicates the lived experience of persons who live in urban centers across the nation, particularly Black men living in major cities. Timothy has also written several peer-reviewed journal articles including “Specter of Reform: The late Sen. Arlen Specter’s Criminal Justice Reform, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and its Role in Expanding the Modern Prison Industrial Complex,” which explores the impact of the infamous 1994 Crime Bill in providing the infrastructure for mass incarceration within the United States. The research, funded by the Arlen Specter Center fellowship, examines how the federalization of criminal law, pursuant to the Commerce Clause, has led to expansive growth in federal law enforcement, imprisonment, and thus setting the foundation for the modern carceral state. Timothy's article “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths to Rhythms: Hip-Hop’s Continuation of the Enduring Tradition of African and African-American Rhetorical Forms and Tropes,” examines hip-hop’s continuation of centuries-old African cultural norms and aesthetic values.
As an attorney, Timothy has long been an advocate for justice, using his legal expertise to defend society’s most vulnerable individuals, including survivors of human trafficking, survivors of police brutality, and the indigent. He has also provided crisis management and legal representation to churches and nonprofit organizations across the globe. Timothy presently serves as the Civil Rights Attorney for the Philadelphia Chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), where he defends the constitutionally protected civil rights and liberties of those who experience discrimination and harassment based on their faith, race, ethnicity, and/or national origin.
Timothy's work has allowed him to contribute to various media outlets, such as the CNN, CBS, BBC Radio 4, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, NPR, The New York Times, and REVOLT TV. He has lectured nationally and internationally at esteemed institutions like Magdalen College of Oxford University, Georgetown University, and Swarthmore College. Timothy has bylines in The Huffington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and WHYY.
He earned his J.D. from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and his B.A. from Morehouse College, where he graduated cum laude and was awarded the Corella and Bertrand Bonner Scholarship. Timothy lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and three children.
