Norman Lockman papers

Norman Lockman (July 11, 1938-April 18, 2005), a political journalist in Delaware and Massachusetts, was the first African American journalist and former managing editor of the Wilmington News Journal.

Lockman grew up in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania near the Delaware line. While not legally segregated, Kennett Square was a socially segregated community during Lockman’s childhood; his family was one of only three African American families living in the area. In high school, Lockman began his journalism career covering little league baseball for the weekly paper, the Kennett News and Advertiser, and later covered high school sports, both for the Kennett News and Advertiser and his high school magazine Old Kennett. He graduated from Kennett High School in 1956.

After graduating, Lockman attended Pennsylvania State University, working for the campus newspaper The Daily Collegian, spending more time working on the paper than his studies. Lockman did not earn a degree from Penn State.

After leaving Penn State, and being unable to get a job at the News Journal due to his race, Lockman enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1961. Stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, Lockman began working for the base newspaper, Desert Wings in the winter of 1962. While stationed at Edwards, he became editor for the paper.

In 1965, Lockman, discharged from the Air Force as an Airman Second Class, returned to Kennett Square and began working as a social worker. He continued to write for the Kennett News and Advertiser (known locally as “the Agonizer”), and began writing his own weekly column titled “Beyond the Norm.”

In 1969, a year after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination and a nine month occupation of Wilmington, Delaware by the Delaware National Guard, Lockman was hired by the News Journal as the first full-time African American journalist. When he started, Lockman was on general assignment, quickly moving up to cover city hall in Wilmington, then state-level politics as government editor and finally Washington bureau chief. Lockman was in DC when the Watergate story broke. During his time at the News Journal, in addition to covering politics and government, Lockman began writing a regular column titled “Counterpoint.”

In 1975, Lockman moved to Boston and began working for the Boston Globe as statehouse bureau chief and a member of the editorial board. During his time at the Globe, Lockman spend a month in Zimbabwe, writing a six-part series in 1980 on life in Zimbabwe at the beginning of Robert Mugabe’s rise to power. In 1983, Lockman was part of a team of reporters, including Kenneth Cooper, Joan FitzGerald, Jonathan Kaufman, Gary McMillan, Kirk Scharfenberg and David Wessel, who did a 16 month investigation called “Boston: The Race Factor,” examining ongoing race issues in the Boston area. “Boston: The Race Factor” won a 1984 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

In 1984, Lockman returned to Wilmington to serve as the News Journal’s managing editor, a position he held for seven years. Lockman resumed his “Counterpoint” column, and in 1991, became a nationally syndicated columnist. In 1995, Lockman earned a Masters of Arts in Liberal Arts from the University of Delaware.

Lockman continued to write for the News Journal until November 2004, after battling Lou Gehrig’s disease for a number of years. Lockman died at age 66 in April 2005.

Long, Tom. "Norman Lockman, 66: part of Pulitzer-winning effort." The Boston Globe, April 20, 2005. http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2005/04/20/norman_lockman_66_part_of_pulitzer_winning_effort/ (accessed June 14, 2018)."Norman Lockman." Obituaries. News Journal, April 19, 2005. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/delawareonline/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=146155810 (accessed June 14, 2018).Penn State Public Broadcasting Creative Group. "Norman Lockman." African American Chronicles / Black History at Penn State. http://blackhistory.psu.edu/timeline/norman_lockman_wins_the_pulitzer_prize_for_reporting_on_race_relations_for (accessed June 14, 2018).Additional biographical information derived from the collection.