James M. Hinds

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James M. Hinds (December 5, 1833 – October 22, 1868) was the first U.S. congressman assassinated in office. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Arkansas from June 24, 1868, until his assassination by the Ku Klux Klan. Hinds, who was white, was a Republican and an advocate of civil rights for black former slaves during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War. Born and raised in a small town in upstate New York, Hinds went west at the age of nineteen and graduated in 1856 from the Cincinnati Law School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He settled in Minnesota, where he opened a private law practice and was elected district attorney of his county. Looking for a fresh start, Hinds moved to the capital city of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1865. In 1867, he was elected to represent Pulaski County as a Republican at the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. The convention was tasked with rewriting the constitution to allow Arkansas' readmission to the Union following...

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