James Monroe Trotter (February 7, 1842 – February 26, 1892) was an American teacher, soldier, employee of the United States Post Office Department, a music historian, and Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C. Born into slavery in Mississippi, he, his two sisters and their mother Letitia were freed by their master, the child's father, and helped to move to Cincinnati, Ohio.

He was the first man of color hired by the Post Office Department (now the United States Postal Service) there and worked with them for many years.

In 1886, he was appointed by the Democratic administration of Grover Cleveland as the Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C., the highest federal position available at the time for African Americans.

His son William Monroe Trotter became a rights activist and was founder and editor of the Boston Guardian, a progressive African American newspaper.

James was born into slavery; his mother Letitia was a slave and his father was her white owner, Richard S. Trotter, then unmarried.

In Cincinnati, James helped to support the family by working as a hotel bellboy and a riverboat cabin boy on a Cincinnati-to-New Orleans run.

Trotter attended Albany Manual Labor Academy in Athens County, Ohio, which was notable for accepting students regardless of race and sex.

Tucker was the mixed-race son of David Isaacs, a German Jew, and Nancy West, a free woman of color; they had an established common-law marriage.

The couple moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as did Virginia's sister Mary Elizabeth and her husband William H. Dupree, also a veteran lieutenant.

After eighteen years of service with the USPS, James Trotter found that he was not being promoted as were white co-workers of equal seniority.

He was appointed in 1887 by President Grover Cleveland as the second African American to be Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, one of the highest federal offices to be held by a man of color at that time.