Trotter, William Monroe

Extract

Trotter, William Monroe (07 April 1872–07 April 1934), newspaper publisher and civil rights activist, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, the son of James Monroe Trotter, a politician who served as recorder of deeds under President Grover Cleveland, and former slave Virginia Isaacs. Raised among Boston’s black elite and steeped in the abolitionist tradition, Trotter entered Harvard University and made history as the institution’s first African American elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating magna cum laude and earning his master’s degree from Harvard, Trotter returned to Boston to learn the real estate business. He founded his own firm in 1899, the same year that he married Boston aristocrat Geraldine Pindell....