Charleston was home to the south’s first Black law firm

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – A city of many firsts, it’s no secret that Charleston is rooted in rich history. In fact, the Holy City was home to the first Black law firm in the south during reconstruction.

The achievements of these legal pioneers during a time of legal oppression for African Americans are a testament to their unbreakable resolve in the fight for justice and civil rights.

According to the African American Registry, Macon B. Allen opened the first black-owned law practice in the country in Boston, Massachusetts in 1845 with Robert Morris. He traveled south 23 years later.

Damon Fordham – a historian, author, and adjunct professor at The Citadel – explained the law firm Whipper, Elliott, and Allen formed in 1868.

“After the end of slavery, and the end of the confederacy, he came down to 91 Broad Street and formed a law office with two other really great American heroes, Robert Brown Elliot and William J. Whipper,” said Fordham.

“The firm lasted until the fall of Reconstruction in 1877. The law firm ended with Robert Brown Elliot leaving for New Orleans after the fall of Reconstruction. Robert Brown Elliott died in 1884 at the age of 42.  Macon B. Allen died here from Alzheimer’s disease in 1894, and William J. Whipper died in 1907 in Washington D.C.,” he continued.

Descendants of the groundbreaking attorneys still live in the Lowcountry. Former State Representative Seth Whipper is also an attorney.

“I am the great, great-grandnephew of William J. Whipper,” he said. “I was totally surprised. I found out about William Whipper when I was doing a paper as a junior in high school on the Reconstruction period. I found this guy — I called my father, and I said ‘hey, this William J. Whipper guy, a lawyer in South Carolina. He looks like somebody in the family.’ They started doing more research, and sure enough, it was determined over the years, my father, mother doing research, and some other family members, that yes in fact that’s who he was.”

Attorney William James Whipper was a prominent South Carolina legislator.

“He married a Charleston girl, Frances Rollin, and they had two children, and I knew his son personally,” said Seth Whipper. “He used to come and visit with us, have dinner with us, go to church with us. His name was Leigh Whipper, and he was an actor.” 

William J. Whipper was also the first African American elected as a circuit court judge in Charleston County, and a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1868.

“William Whipper during the early convention after the Civil War offered legislation to allow women to vote,” said Whipper. 

He says he’s proud of his family’s pioneering lineage. “I felt fulfilled, if encouraged. I wanted to be a lawyer before I found out about it. I think that’s interesting. I practice law here with my sister who is also a lawyer. It’s a fulfillment. I didn’t know I had this lineage. Even William J. Whipper’s uncle William Whipper and his father, they were all involved in the Abolitionist Movement,” he said.

Another prominent Whipper relative was instrumental in helping slaves reach freedom through the Underground Railroad.

 “The fellow on the picture here is actually the uncle of William J. Whipper who is my direct line of uncle,” Seth Whipper said.

William Whipper’s portrait graces the walls in the old county courthouse courtroom, just down the street from his nephew William J. Whipper’s former law firm building.

According to Attorney Seth Whipper, there’s an area of North Charleston called Whipper Barony, because William J. Whipper was paid with a deed of property for performing some services for a Frenchman.

The law firm was located at 91 Broad Street in downtown Charleston. Stefany Rhodes and her husband now own the historic building. 

“This building was built in 1793 or 94, and I believe it was one of the first buildings in this entire block.  It’s very historic, that’s one of the reasons we fell in love with the building,” said Rhodes.

The news of the unknown historical significance comes as a pleasant surprise. “I think it’s awesome. I wish I knew that before. I think it’s so unique and special to the history of our country, I’m very happy about that, another chapter of which we are a part now too,” said Rhodes.

It’s a chapter that is one of many for three men who worked to change the world. Their efforts are forever engraved in history. 

“In 1895, when Senator Benjamin Ryan Tillman established the segregation laws of South Carolina, William J. Whipper, the great Robert Smalls, and several other great Black leaders testified at the State House against that,” said Fordham. “Robert Brown Elliott in particular, he testified in 1871 before congress against the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina. That led President Ulysses S. Grant to sign the Enforcement Act that made domestic terrorism a felony. Macon B. Allen was actually appointed a judge during Reconstruction in 1873, a pretty prominent position.”

Fordham says their legacy has set the bar for generations to come. 

“If these men can achieve such great heights with the oppression they faced in those days, imagine what the young people of today can achieve with far less oppression in this day and age,” he said.