William Monroe Trotter: Early 20th Century Civil Rights Activist

William Monroe Trotter was a well known early 20th century civil rights activist. His early life consisted of amazing educational honors, William became the first Black member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1901, he founded the newspaper Boston Guardian, it served as propaganda against discrimination. Mr. Trotter was very outspoken in his views, so much so he was once arrested for heckling Booker T. Washington, an American educator and advisor to presidents of the United States, he shamelessly challenged the policies of President Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and weighed in on many of the racial conflicts at the time, the most important being the Brownsville Affair and the Scottsboro case.