Drawn from his recent book, Race Over Party, Millington Bergeson-Lockwood examines how Black and Irish Bostonians forged a powerful political coalition in the 1880s that was centered on growing urban political power, a mutual struggle against oppression, and a shared place in the story of American independence. This period of alliance is part of the larger story of how African Americans positioned themselves in both Boston's and the nation's shifting political landscape. Dr. Bergeson-Lockwood offers a new narrative of the Reconstruction era centered in the urban North, and shows how in their activism Black Bostonians tested the promise of equality in America’s democracy.

Millington Bergeson-Lockwood is an author and historian of race, politics, and the law in United States history. He received his PhD in history from the University of Michigan in 2011 and BA in history and African and African diaspora studies from Boston College in 2003.

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