Black History: The Rollin Salon

The birthplace of the Confederacy, South Carolina was also the center of major political changes that swept through the South after the Civil War. Under the 1867 Reconstruction Acts, Black men in former Confederate states gained the right to vote and hold elected office. In South Carolina, a state with a majority-Black population, voters elected a majority-Black state legislature, the first in the nation’s history.

Through their family’s social and political connections, Charlotte and Katherine Rollin obtained clerkship positions with the new government. At their home in Columbia, located across the street from the State House, the sisters hosted a political salon, where Black and white lawmakers gathered to socialize and discuss the issues of the day. For the Rollins and their allies, the goal was to create a new American democracy—one in which women’s voices would also be heard.