William James Whipper (January 23, 1834 – July 29, 1907) was an abolitionist, trial lawyer, municipal judge, and state legislator in South Carolina.

[1] As a delegate to the state's 1868 constitutional convention, he supported women's suffrage,[1] although his motion to allow "every citizen" to vote was not taken seriously at the time.

Whipper volunteered for the United States Army during the Civil War, serving from 1864 to November 1865 as a member of the Colored Troops.

[3] During his career as a trial lawyer, he once served as a co-counsel to Jonathan Jasper Wright, who later went on to become the first black judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina.

[4] He and John L. Mitchell represented barber George Brownfield who was convicted of murder by an all white jury in Georgetown, South Carolina.