https://www.millingtonbl.com/about-millington daily 0.75 2025-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528274277046-J2UPUJCTKG5LRXSK9EV3/Millington+Bergeson+Lockwood_Portrait About Millington - Millington W. Bergeson-Lockwood, PhD Dr. Bergeson-Lockwood is a historian of race, politics, and the law in the United States. Specializing in nineteenth century northern urban life, his work examines how black men and women in cities challenged discrimination and attempted to use the tools of party politics in their struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. A native of Washington, DC, he graduated from Boston College in 2003 and completed his MA and PhD in History from the University of Michigan in 2011. He has taught courses in African American and United States History at George Mason University and the University of Maryland. In 2012-2013 he was the postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to his new book, Race Over Party, he has published essays in several edited volumes, the Journal of Urban History, and the Journal of the Civil War Era from which his article on racial discrimination in public amusement won the Richard's Prize for best article published in 2015. He also writes blog posts for UNC Press, Muster, Black Perspectives, and History News Network. His new project explores how historical ideas of race and poverty influence global governance and international development policy. https://www.millingtonbl.com/journal-articles daily 0.75 2018-06-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528280539061-3VC1EU1HFFA4OO7VXT7C/HW_1874_04_11_Butler_Cradle+of+Liberty.jpg Journal Articles - "No Longer Pliant Tools: Urban Politics and Conflicts over African American Partisanship in 1880s Boston, Massachusetts," Journal of Urban History, Vol 44, Issue 2, (March 2018): 169-186 During the 1880s, black Bostonians engaged deeply in urban electoral politics, and debates over partisanship became discussions over the place of African Americans in the United States body politic. They agreed that having a political party respond to one’s needs and interests was part of being a full and equal citizen, but divided over how best to achieve this vision. Loyal black Republicans hoped to motivate the party from within. So-called African American independents, however, broke away from Republicans and expected both major parties to earn their votes. They rejected the idea that they owed any party loyalty or unanimity based on past deeds. Focusing on the Massachusetts gubernatorial reelection campaign of Democrat Benjamin Butler in 1883, this article shows how, in their struggle for equality, black voters of either position saw urban electoral politics as an invaluable tool to achieve full citizenship protections and exercise black political power. Read More... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528279877626-7TVG0QBBLOS5TTUFEGO6/Figure+2_The+Tech_1883_03_21_Page_18_Boston+Skating.png Journal Articles - "“We Do Not Care Particularly about the Skating Rinks”: African American Challenges to Racial Discrimination in Places of Public Amusement in Nineteenth-Century Boston, Massachusetts." The Journal of the Civil War Era 5, no. 2 (2015): 254-288. On a Saturday in January 1885, Richard Brown, a night inspector of customs and prominent member of Boston’s black community, and two of his grandchildren, Louisa and Richard Lewis, approached the ticket booth at the Boston Roller Skating Rink, owned by Frank Winslow. George Hawes, the rink’s ticket agent, immediately informed Brown that the establishment was private and that African Americans were not welcome. Brown objected, arguing that the rink publicly advertised, called for the patronage of the public, and was not, therefore, a private facility. Hawes was moved by neither Brown’s appeal nor his crying grandchildren, and upon his orders, two or three men grabbed Brown by the collar as the three were “violently thrust out of the building.” Brown was angered not only by the general insult but because the incident took place in front of his grandchildren. They, Brown explained in a petition to Boston’s city council for the revocation of the rink’s license, had been born after the Civil War, and “since the abolition of slavery had never till then known the extent of the prejudice which once existed against their race and color and which lingers among ill informed persons.” Several days later, in a separate incident, employees excluded attorney Edward Everett Brown and furniture salesroom manager George Freeman from the Highland Skating Rink in Roxbury. When questioned about his motives, the rink manager David McKay responded, “You are colored, and your friend is colored; I allow no colored persons to skate on my floor.” They could, McKay explained, “buy tickets admitting them simply as spectators . . . but they cannot skate here. . . . I would not break the rule even for Fred Douglass"....Read More... https://www.millingtonbl.com/contact daily 0.75 2018-06-06 https://www.millingtonbl.com/book-chapters daily 0.75 2025-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528288186479-8EZV6CDO5M5IAUAB9WOH/Wendell+Phillips_Book+Cover.jpg Book Chapters - “‘Here Labor Never Forgives’: Wendell Phillips, Labor Reform, and Electoral Politics, 1868-1883” in A J Aiséirithe and Donald Yacovone, eds., “Nothing but Freedom, Justice, and Truth”: Essays on the Meaning of Wendell Phillips (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2016) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528287954164-37AJIYF0R1H73V0TZH86/Greatest+and+Grandest_Cover+Art.jpg Book Chapters - “’In Accordance with the Spirit of the Times’: The Civil Rights Act in New England Law and Politics,” in Christian Samito, ed., “The Greatest and Grandest Act”: The Civil Rights Act of 1866 from Reconstruction to Today (University of Southern Illinois Press, 2018) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/684fe629-678d-49cb-b135-b75cd4c84f99/Black+History+Crossroads_Cover.jpeg Book Chapters - “How to Escape the Graveyard of History: Edwin Garrison Walker, Independent Politics, and the Myth of Northern White Racial Innocence,” in Leslie M. Harris, Clarence Lang, et al, eds. Black Urban History at the Crossroads: Race and Place in the American City (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024), 121-144. https://www.millingtonbl.com/awards daily 0.75 2018-06-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528311462569-X0JASEYZJ81O0Q7YE18G/Figure+3_The+Tech_1884_11_19_Page_21_Highland+Park.png Awards - 2015 Richard's Prize for best article published in The Journal of the Civil War Era for “‘We Do Not Care Particularly About the Skating Rinks’: African Americans Challenges to Racial Discrimination in Places of Public Accommodation in Nineteenth-Century Boston, Massachusetts,” Volume 5, Number 2 (June 2015) Bergeson-Lockwood’s essay recounts how African Americans in Boston fought discrimination in public accommodations on a variety of fronts, including the press, the courts, and the legislature. The prize committee praised it as “a smart article that ties together legal, political, and social history.” The committee highlighted the article’s unique contribution to scholarship on civil rights by noting, “This work should be useful for anyone interested in the still under-studied question of how ‘race’ worked in the post-Civil War North, what kinds of antiracism were possible, and how and where racial restrictions developed.” Read more about this award... https://www.millingtonbl.com/race-over-party daily 0.75 2018-06-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528278353134-NP2SX00DTNUFLGJQMIFW/RaceOverParty_Cover.jpg Race Over Party - Race Over Party In late nineteenth-century Boston, battles over black party loyalty were fights over the place of African Americans in the post–Civil War nation. In his fresh in-depth study of black partisanship and politics, Millington W. Bergeson-Lockwood demonstrates that party politics became the terrain upon which black Bostonians tested the promise of equality in America’s democracy. Most African Americans remained loyal Republicans, but Race Over Party highlights the actions and aspirations of a cadre of those who argued that the GOP took black votes for granted and offered little meaningful reward for black support. These activists branded themselves “independents,” forging new alliances and advocating support of whichever candidate would support black freedom regardless of party. By the end of the century, however, it became clear that partisan politics offered little hope for the protection of black rights and lives in the face of white supremacy and racial violence. Even so, Bergeson-Lockwood shows how black Bostonians’ faith in self-reliance, political autonomy, and dedicated organizing inspired future generations of activists who would carry these legacies into the foundation of the twentieth-century civil rights movement. https://www.millingtonbl.com/blog-posts daily 0.75 2018-11-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1530728712087-8R9NMSJSDX1B1AE8SXSH/Pauline-Hopkins-Colored-American-Magazine-e1529573974110.jpg Blog Posts - Black Women, History, and the Democratic Party Black Perspectives, July 3, 2018 On May 30, 2018, Axios published an article announcing, “Black women feel slighted by the Democrats.” The article explains how African American female candidates, many running for the first time, are not receiving the support or recognition from the national Democratic Party. A DNC spokesperson denied the claims stating, “African-American women are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and we know we can’t take them for granted.” Despite these pledges, Black women candidates feel unsupported by the party. Kimberly Hill Knot, a candidate for Congress from Michigan, notices that issues important to African Americans, particularly in cities, have been sidelined in the fight between moderates and progressives. As she told a reporter, “I think some of the other groups (like progressives) have gotten more attention than any racial group… I don’t hear the national party talking about an urban agenda.” The national party, these women argue, cares only about money and the ability to raise funds. “These are organizations that are meant to help make sure black interests are represented,” Alabama candidate Audri Scott Williams lamented, “and yet everybody is looking at who’s more electable based on money.” Unfortunately, these candidates’ frustration is not a recent phenomenon...Read More https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528290025240-D46C4YIKY4T93OABYK0Z/Figure+1_Boston+Theater_Interior_Ballous_1855_11_10_p296+BW.jpeg Blog Posts - “STARBUCKS IS NOT JUST A PLACE TO BUY A CUP OF COFFEE”: RACE AND THE BOUNDARIES OF URBAN PUBLIC LIFE Muster, May 1, 2018 When Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, two young African American entrepreneurs, entered a Starbucks coffee shop on April 12, 2018, for a business meeting in downtown Philadelphia, neither expected to be caught in the boundary between urban public and private space. The two men arrived at the café and awaited ... Read More https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528290289125-CJ9GDNJS031O2GDAJE8F/BG_1902_10_25_Walker+GraveStone_Cropped.jpeg Blog Posts - How to Escape the Graveyard of History: Remembering the Dead to Expose America’s Demons UNC Press Blog, April 26, 2018 If you walk up the hill northeast to the right of the chapel at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts you reach the oldest part of the graveyard. On a small unlabeled and unpaved path beneath a giant oak tree sits the small weathered headstone of Edwin Garrison Walker; the name barely legible. Eroded and shrunken by age, the memorial does not do justice to the man interred beneath. Not far from Walker’s resting place are monuments to other black freedom fighters Lewis Hayden and John Rock; their graves well marked and maintained. Famous and well known for their anti-slavery activism, they are featured on the cemetery’s historical walking tour. The contrast between the well-maintained memorials of Rock and Hayden and the seemingly forgotten monument to Walker raises the question: What is at stake in privileging the commemoration of one life over another?...Read More https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1533286670407-XQRBI031U9GTKPUURP84/11_Tragedy+of+the+Negro_Walker_1897_NYPL.jpg Blog Posts - Black Bostonians in the 19th Century Thought the 14th Amendment Didn’t Do Enough to Protect Black Voting Rights History News Network, July 28, 2018 July 2018 is a challenging time to celebrate the 150th birthday of the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite decades of apparent progress, the provisions of the amendment continue to be under attack. A major battleground in the war for the Fourteenth Amendment is the full and equal participation of all citizens in American democracy. This year, the US Supreme Court addressed new challenges to voting rights and representation. Justice Sonya Sotomayor made clear the urgency of the topic in her recent dissent opposing state restrictions on voting, arguing that they have an unequal impact on racial minorities. “Our democracy,” the justice wrote, “rests on the ability of all individuals, regardless of race, income, or status, to exercise their right to vote.” Echoing generations of civil rights activists, Sotomayor affirmed the importance of unrestricted suffrage as the foundation of American democracy, calling it the “most precious right that is “preservative of all rights.” 150 years ago, as African Americans themselves sought to preserve their hard won freedom they looked to the Fourteenth Amendment as the protector of their “most precious right.”...Read More https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528290515795-CCD5PP3PV7IRR31FEVK6/Crispus_Attucks_Monument_Commemeration.jpg Blog Posts - Race and Remembering: How a Monument to the Boston Massacre Was and Can Be So Much More UNC Press Blog, March 16, 2018 This March, as every year, Bostonians and visitors will gather near the Old State House to view a reenactment and remember the events during the Boston Massacre. They will recall that on March 5th, 1770 British soldiers murdered five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American descent, and Irish sailor Patrick Carr. Some may even visit the memorial to these victims on the south-eastern side of the Boston Common off Tremont Street. Though passersby may stop and consider the surface meaning of this landmark, where black and Irish blood mixed in rebellion to British tyranny at a crucial moment, they will likely leave unaware that the monument itself was the result of a remarkable effort of interracial cooperation and solidarity...Read More https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1541779207651-74V39A853AK7AGNKWO2K/Figure+3_The+Tech_1884_11_19_Page_21_Highland+Park.png Blog Posts - Civil Rights Without the Supreme Court We’re History, November 7, 2018 2018 was a tough year for civil rights advocates at the US Supreme Court. Often in close decisions, the court repeatedly narrowed the scope of civil rights protections for consumers, workers, voters, and immigrants. As if this were not enough, the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy has turned the court even more conservative for another generation. Civil rights activists cannot count on the Supreme Court as an ally in the fight for further equality and rights protections. But this is not the first time the Supreme Court has abandoned civil rights, and when it happened in the late nineteenth century, Americans found a way to defend what the courts would not…Read More https://www.millingtonbl.com/home daily 1.0 2025-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b17959c266c07fb960a8d4e/1528310964073-V087VL79JPT0XBVLFA5W/Millington+Bergeson+Lockwood-Millington+portraits-0082+%281%29.jpg Home - About Millington Bergeson-Lockwood Dr. 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. His new book, Race Over Party, examines the intersections between racial and partisan politics in nineteenth century Boston. His work has appeared previously in several edited volumes, the Journal of Urban History, and the Journal of the Civil War Era, from which he won the Richards Prize for best article published in 2015. His new project explores how historical ideas of race and poverty influence global governance and international development policy. 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