Ionia Rollin Whipper

Ionia Rollin Whipper (September 8, 1872 – April 13, 1953) was an American obstetrician and public health outreach worker. A 1903 graduate of Howard University School of Medicine, she was one of the few African-American women physicians of her generation. During the mid-1920s, she worked for the United States Children's Bureau; her work there involved traveling the rural South and training midwives to use sterile delivery techniques and to register births.

During a time when maternity homes for unwed mothers were for white women only, she opened her home to unwed mothers of color. Eventually, with the help of donations, she established a separate home for her work with these women, which still bears her name.

Early life and education Both of Whipper's parents were from African American families which had been free before the Civil War. Her father, the lawyer William James Whipper, moved from Philadelphia to South Carolina after the Civil War, becoming one of the first black judges in Reconstruction Era South Carolina. In Beaufort, South Carolina, he married Frances Anne Rollin.

Professional work Because her mother died before she completed medical school, Whipper borrowed money and worked as a teacher to support her own education.

Between 1921 and 1929, Dr. Whipper worked for the United States Children's Bureau, which employed her to travel through the rural South educating midwives.

Later life In her later life, Dr. Whipper moved to New York, where she lived with relatives in Saratoga Springs and in New York City. She died at Harlem Hospital on April 13, 1953, and is interred in the columbarium at Fresh Pond Crematory.