WILLIAM MONROE TROTTER
For the week of April 17-23
April 17
1872—Activist and fiery journalist William Monroe Trotter is born on this day in Boston, Mass. A close friend of W.E.B. Du Bois, Trotter was one of the most militant Black leaders of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He helped found the Niagara Movement, which led to the establishment of the NAACP but then refused to join, claiming the group was too moderate and elitist. He was also a leading opponent of the accommodating policies of Booker T. Washington. Trotter’s primary vehicle of expression was his newspaper—the Boston Guardian.
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