William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter was a prominent African American civil rights activist, journalist, and co-founder of the Boston Guardian, a newspaper that became a powerful platform for social protest. Born on April 7, 1872, in Mississippi, Trotter was raised in a family with a rich heritage, including connections to notable historical figures like Thomas Jefferson. He excelled academically, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University and becoming the first African American to earn a Phi Beta Kappa key. Trotter's career was marked by his staunch opposition to the ideologies of Booker T. Washington, which he believed compromised African American progress.
He gained national attention after heckling Washington during a speech in Boston, an event that amplified his role as a leading critic of Washington's approach. Trotter was also involved in the Niagara Movement and led protests against racial segregation, including notable confrontations with President Woodrow Wilson regarding the treatment of black workers in government. Despite his fervent activism, Trotter struggled to create a sustained organizational movement, and his influence waned in the 1920s. He passed away in 1934, but his legacy as a fierce advocate for civil rights and equality continues to resonate within African American history.
Subject Terms
William Monroe Trotter
- Born: April 7, 1872
- Birthplace: Chillicothe, Ohio
- Died: April 7, 1934
- Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts
Newspaper publisher and activist
Trotter was a catalyst in the opposition to the social, economic, and political philosophies of Booker T. Washington He used the power of the press to campaign for equality for African Americans and openly confronted President Woodrow Wilson over the segregation of African American workers in the federal government.
Areas of achievement: Business; Civil rights; Journalism and publishing
Early Life
William Monroe Trotter was born on April 7, 1872, to James Monroe Trotter and Virginia Issacs, who claimed to be descended from a union between Thomas Jefferson and Mary Hemings, the sister of Sally Hemings. The son of a Mississippi slave owner, James served in the volunteer Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He achieved the rank of second lieutenant and was an outspoken supporter of equal pay for African American troops. After the war ended, the Trotters settled in Massachusetts. After their first two children died in infancy, the family moved to rural Ohio and lived on a farm owned by Virginia’s parents.
When Trotter was seven months old, the Trotters moved back to Boston and lived in a predominantly white neighborhood. In 1887, James was appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia by President Grover Cleveland. Trotter grew up in relatively comfortable circumstances and graduated as the valedictorian and president of his high school class. He went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1895 and was the first African American man to earn a Phi Beta Kappa key. At Harvard, he joined the Wendell Phillips Club, which celebrated the life of the noted abolitionist who served as an inspiration to him. He earned a master of arts degree from Harvard in 1896.
Trotter’s original career goal was to work in international banking, but opportunities were closed to him because of racial prejudice. As an alternative, he went into the real estate business with his father. In 1899, he married the socially prominent Geraldine Louise Pindell, whose uncle had been instrumental in integrating Boston schools during the 1850’s.
Life’s Work
In 1901, Trotter and George Washington Forbes cofounded the newspaper The Boston Guardian in the space that had previously housed William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator. Although Trotter had participated in discussion groups on issues related to African Americans, the newspaper became his outlet for social protest. The principal target of the editors was black leader Booker T. Washington, architect of the “Tuskegee Machine,” whom they accused of acceding to white interests. Their campaign was accelerated in 1903 when Trotter and others heckled Washington during a speech in Boston, preventing him from speaking. After the event—dubbed the “Boston Riot”—Trotter was arrested and served thirty days in the Charles Street jail. The notoriety, however, secured Trotter’s reputation as the foremost ideological opponent of Washington. It also emboldened W. E. B. Du Bois to sharpen his attacks on Washington.
These actions proved to be too radical for Forbes, who left the newspaper and did not work with Trotter again. Trotter joined Du Bois as a founder of the Niagara Movement in 1905 but soon left the organization to form the National Equal Rights League (1908-1921) rather than join the interracial National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) upon its founding in 1909. Although he was an early supporter of President Woodrow Wilson, Trotter later led a delegation of African Americans to the White House after Wilson segregated black workers in the federal government. During this confrontation, Wilson objected to Trotter’s forceful tone and banned him from the White House for the remainder of his term.
Trotter continued to call protest meetings in Boston, but he was unable to develop an organizational structure to support his ideals. The death of Washington in 1915 left him without a specific target for his anger, but he continued to lead delegations of African Americans to the White House to protest segregation in the federal government in 1922, 1924, and 1926. The Trotterites also picketed the Boston showing of the film The Birth of a Nation (1915), which celebrates the Ku Klux Klan, and defended the Scottsboro Boys, a group of African American youths accused of raping two white women. Trotter persistently crusaded for a Crispus Attucks Day to honor the African American protester who was killed in the Revolutionary War.
In 1918, Trotter’s wife Geraldine died of influenza and he became even more isolated. His influence waned during the 1920’s, a nadir for race relations. On the night of his sixty-second birthday, he either jumped or fell to his death at his home in Boston.
Significance
Trotter was an uncompromising, confrontational opponent of black leader Washington’s social, political, and economic agenda. While Du Bois adopted a more cerebral approach, Trotter used The Boston Guardian as a voice of opposition to Washington and to racial segregation in general. Although he was the leader of the “Trotterites,” he failed to translate his ardor into an organized, sustained movement. Nevertheless, his actions furthered the tradition of African American protest, and his early participation in the Niagara Movement contributed to the formation of the NAACP.
Bibliography
Fox, Stephen B. The Guardian of Boston: William Monroe Trotter. New York: Scribner, 1971. This is the first major biography of Trotter.
Harrison, William. “Phylon Profile IX: William Monroe Trotter—Fighter.” Phylon 7 (Third Quarter, 1946): 236-245. Provides an overview of Trotter’s causes and utilizes primary sources from Harvard University to construct a sketch of the activist publisher.
Puttkammer, Charles W., and Ruth Worthy. “William Monroe Trotter, 1872-1934.” The Journal of Negro History 42 (October, 1958): 298-316. Authors draw on primary sources and interviews to demonstrate the contradictions in Trotter’s approach to civil rights.
Washington, Booker T. “The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob.” In My Larger Education, Being Chapters from My Experience. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1911. Recounts the events of the Boston Riot from Washington’s perspective.