Boston College alumnus Millington Bergeson-Lockwood, a historian of race, politics, and the law in U.S., will present “Politics, Power, and the Past: Black and Irish Political Alliances in 1880s Boston” on Sept. 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Burns Library. Bergeson-Lockwood is the author of the new book Race Over Party: Black Politics and Partisanship in Late Nineteenth-Century Boston, which 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. In his book, 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. Sponsor: Office of the Provost with BC Libraries and the Center for Irish Programs.