William Monroe Trotter was born on April 7, 1872, in Chillicothe, Ohio, U.S. He was an “African American journalist and vocal advocate of racial equality in the early 20th century.” According to Britannica, Trotter helped form the Niagara Movement and create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), from which he later broke ranks. He helped launch a nationwide movement in 1915 to ban a flagrantly racist film, The Birth of a Nation.