William Monroe Trotter (February 7, 1872 - April 7, 1934) was a newspaper editor and real estate business man, and an activist for African-American civil rights. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University, and was the first man of color to earn a Phi Beta Kappa key. Together with George Forbes, in 1901 he founded the Boston Guardian, an independent newspaper of the African-American community. In 1905, Trotter was a charter member of the Niagara Movement, helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with W.E.B. Du Bois, and independently founded the National Equal Rights League.