He Was the First Congressman Assassinated. Few Remember

James Hinds championed Black rights after the Civil War, as Longreads explains
Posted Sep 28, 2025 9:30 AM CDT
He Was the First Congressman Assassinated. Few Remember
James M. Hinds.   (Wikipedia)

On a lonely Arkansas road in 1868, Congressman James M. Hinds was assassinated for championing Reconstruction and Black civil rights—yet his name has been all but erased from American memory. A story at Longreads examines how the first congressman ever assassinated while in office—a man once called "an eloquent vindicator of the rights of men"—has become such a forgotten figure. Hinds, a New York native who arrived in Arkansas after the Civil War, served a single term in Congress before being fatally shot by a Ku Klux Klan member in Arkansas in 1868. The story by Drew Johnson has details on his ambush—including how Hinds scrawled a message on his hatband as he lay dying, one that identified himself and asked that his wife take care of their two daughters.

Hinds had been one of the more vocal proponents of racial equality in Arkansas—mingling with newly freed Black citizens, leading "freedmen marches," and pushing for political participation. Yet his story has been largely omitted from standard histories. Even comprehensive accounts of Reconstruction rarely mention him. That near-erasure spurred interest from William Darrow, a Vermont federal prosecutor and distant relative, who painstakingly reconstructed Hinds' life in an article 10 years ago that remains one of the only substantial modern records of the congressman.

Why isn't this assassination of a congressman better known? Johnson suggests the swift rollback of Reconstruction is a big factor. The article explores how dominant narratives can erase stories like Hinds' from the national memory, and it challenges the way history is told. "You are free to remember James M. Hinds or forget him, but not to do both," Johnson concludes. "We finally ought to get around to choosing." Read the full story.

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