author

Frank A. Rollin

d. 1901

An early Black biographer and civil rights activist, she published under the name Frank A. Rollin and wrote a groundbreaking life of Martin R. Delany in 1868. Her work and public life place her at the heart of Reconstruction-era Black history.

1 Audiobook

Life and public services of Martin R. Delany Sub-Assistant Commissioner Bureau Relief of Refugees, Freedmen, and of Abandoned Lands, and late Major 104th U.S. Colored Troops

Life and public services of Martin R. Delany Sub-Assistant Commissioner Bureau Relief of Refugees, Freedmen, and of Abandoned Lands, and late Major 104th U.S. Colored Troops

by Frank A. Rollin

About the author

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Frances Anne Rollin Whipper (1845–1901) came from a free Black family and later published under the pen name Frank A. Rollin. She is best known for Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany (1868), widely recognized as an important early biography by an African American author.

Her life reached beyond writing. During and after the Civil War era, she was active as a teacher and civil rights advocate, and she became known for challenging racial discrimination in travel. She later married politician William James Whipper, and the two were part of the political world of Reconstruction South Carolina.

Today, she is remembered both for her writing and for the example she set as a Black woman shaping public life in the 19th century. Readers interested in African American history, biography, and Reconstruction will find her story especially compelling.