James Sidney Hinton

James Sidney Hinton (December 25, 1834 – November 6, 1892) was a Civil War veteran and Republican politician, the first African American to hold state office in Indiana and the first African American to serve in the Indiana state legislature.

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina to parents who were free people of color, he moved with them as a youth to Indiana. Hinton started working part-time as a barber while attending school. Later he became involved with politics and the Republican Party. His father was a successful builder of skylights.

Hinton later attended the Union Literary Institute in Union City, Indiana (known in some sources as the "Greenville Institute" or "Darke County Seminary"). The Institute was located within the Greenville Settlement which straddled the Indiana-Ohio state line. Hiram Revels, also from a free family, who later became a politician and would be elected as the first African-American United States Senator, was among his classmates.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Hinton sought to enlist in the Union Army in Indiana but was first turned away because of his race. His rise in political status was propelled by his strong ties to a community network through the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Masons. Both sculptures are the work of Jon Hair.