"[4] A single-story porch extends across the width of the main (southern) facade, with stairs on the left providing access to the entrance.

The same year, he founded the Boston Guardian, a weekly newspaper in which he regularly criticized educator Booker T. Washington for his accommodationist policies.

He was also a founder, along with Du Bois, of the Niagara Movement in 1905—a precursor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

He was an uncompromising voice in the fight for civil rights, but was notoriously difficult to work with, and played no role in the NAACP after its founding.

After a high-profile meeting with President Woodrow Wilson in 1913 drew news coverage for the heated exchanges between the two men, Trotter became an increasingly marginalized voice of protest, and died in 1934.