William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center

Trotter Muticultural Center. Photo courtesy trotter.umich.edu

Trotter Multicultural Center Name Honors Black Social Justice Activist and Journalist

by Angelé Anderfuren

William Monroe Trotter was the first person of color to be the namesake of a building on the campus of the University of Michigan. More than fifty years later, the William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center (TMC) is still the only building with that honor (Dougall & Juliano). While many people on campus today aren’t familiar with Trotter the man, in his time he was a celebrated journalist and activist for civil rights and social justice for Black people in the United States.

Trotter was an important figure in the Black Action Movement (“The Black Action Movements”), one of the founders of the organization that would become the NAACP, and founder of the Boston newspaper The Guardian, which was a weekly newspaper for the Black community (“Timeline of William Monroe Trotter”). Trotter “dedicated his life to advocating for higher education and voting rights for Black people” (Patil).

While Trotter has no tie to Michigan (he was born in Ohio and lived in Boston) or the University of Michigan (he graduated from Harvard where he’s the namesake of that university’s center for social justice) (“Our Namesake”), Trotter’s name stood for justice, raising up Black voices, and leadership in the Black community in the 1970s when Trotter House was established. “For many the building name symbolizes the dedication of generations of Michigan students, faculty and staff who worked to make our campus more diverse and inclusive,” President Mark Schlissel said in 2016 of the Trotter Center’s name.

William Monroe Trotter (circa 1915). Photo courtesy: Dickinson.edu

Trotter House, as it was first called in 1971, began its life as a place for Black students to gather and find support (“Our History”). “The space was created in response to Black students feeling like their voices weren’t heard on campus,” according to a 2021 article published by The Michigan Daily on the 50th anniversary of the center. The center expanded its mission in 1981 to serve not only Black students, but also students across cultures. The Trotter Center says on its website that they continue “in his tradition of political consciousness, educational advancement, and the imperatives of social justice.” When the Trotter Multicultural Center got its expanded location on State Street across from Angell Hall in 2016, a university regent pledged funding to name the new location after him and his wife, but the campus community demanded Trotter remain the namesake and the donor withdrew the donation (“Trotter Multicultural Center on State Street”).

The meaning of Trotter’s name is apropo to what he and the building named in his honor stand for. Ancestry.com says the name Trotter means someone who rides a horse at a fast pace and may have been given to people who were messengers for a living. BehindTheName.com says William comes from two German words, combined meaning a desire to protect or will to be a protector. William Monroe Trotter did just that in his time. As a journalist and Black activist for civil rights and social justice, Trotter was a messenger and a protector, putting himself in the spotlight to give a voice to all in the Black community. His name on U.M.’s multicultural center continues to lift up his voice and what he stood for, keeping the spotlight on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion to make the campus a more welcoming place for all students.

In May of 2022, the University of Michigan announced that the Trotter Center will no longer be the only building on campus named after a person of color. The physics building’s new lab addition will be renamed to honor former LSA professor emeritus Homer A. Neal. In a news release, the university stated, “The renaming holds symbolic and historic value: This will be the first academic building on central campus named after a Black member of the University of Michigan community” (Smith).

Works Cited

Buckley, Stephen and Kailana Dejoie. “Not enough white people in Trotter Multicultural Center, white student claims.” The Michigan Daily, 4 Apr. 2022, https://www.michigandaily.com/michigan-in-color/not-enough-white-people-in-trotter-multicultural-center-white-student-claims/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

Dougall, Jared and Christian Juliano. “Daily Research Finds Only One Building Named after Person of Color, 12 after Women.” The Michigan Daily, 15 July 2021, https://www.michigandaily.com/news/administration/daily-research-finds-only-one-building-named-after-person-color-12-after/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Our History.” U-M Trotter Multicultural Center, https://trotter.umich.edu/about. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Our Namesake.” William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at Harvard, https://trotter.hks.harvard.edu/our-namesake/#:~:text=William%20Monroe%20Trotter%20is%20one,influence%20contemporary%20social%20justice%20activists. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

Patil, Sajal. “U-M community reflects on 50th anniversary of William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center.” The Michigan Daily, 21 Feb. 2022, https://www.michigandaily.com/news/u-m-community-reflects-on-50th-anniversary-of-william-monroe-trotter-multicultural-center/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

Smith, Brittany. “Renaming History.” U-M College of LSA, 19 May 2022, https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/news-events/all-news/search-news/renaming-history.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“The Black Action Movements.” The University of Michigan Library, 2021, https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/history-of-the-william-monroe-/the-black-action-movements. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Timeline of William Monroe Trotter.” U-M Trotter Multicultural Center, https://trotter.umich.edu/article/timeline-william-monroe-trotters-life. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

Tobin, James. “Trotter House Origins.” LSA Magazine, Spring 2013. https://issuu.com/lsamagazine/docs/1-13spring-chain_reactions-entireissue/37. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Trotter Family History.” Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=trotter. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Trotter, Monroe 1872–1934.” Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/social-reformers/william-monroe-trotter. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Trotter Multicultural Center.” U-M Public Affairs, 21 July, 2016. https://publicaffairs.vpcomm.umich.edu/trotter-multicultural-center/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“Trotter Multicultural Center on State Street.” U-M Trotter Multicultural Center, https://trotter.umich.edu/article/trotter-multicultural-center-state-street-timeline. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“William.” BehindTheName.com. https://www.behindthename.com/name/william. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

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