American politician
William Hines Furbush (c. 1839 - September 3, 1902) was an American photographer, state legislator, sheriff, lawyer, and newspaper editor in Arkansas. In February 1865, towards the end of the American Civil War, he joined the 42nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment in Columbus, Ohio. He became a commissary sergeant and was discharged in January 1866. He lived in Liberia for a short time after the war and returned to the United States.
Furbush was born in Carroll County, Kentucky.[1] He studied in Ohio. He worked as a photographer in Delaware.
A Republican he served in the Arkansas Legislature. He advocated for the creation of Lee County, Arkansas (named for Confederate Army leader (Robert E. Lee) and was appointed its first sheriff.[2] He eventually switched to the Democratic Party.[3] He moved to Colorado and Ohio before returning to Arkansas.[4]
Furbush was involved in Civil Rights disputes over he and other African Americans being denied admission to restaurants and theaters. Mifflin Gibbs helped win one of the legal cases.[5]
In 1874 he married 18 year old schoolteacher Emma S. Owens in Memphis, Tennessee.[5]
Furbush's later career was tumultuous. He resigned as sheriff for a white man and ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Arkansas House. He was likely the first African American Democrat in the Arkansas House. He feuded with the Lily White Republicans and Democrats, who he came to support even establishing a Democratic Party paper for blacks, before the party disenfranchised his fellow African Americans and drew Fusion politics to a close. He spent time in Colorado where he killed a man and was nearly lynched before being cleared of charges. He returned to Arkansas. His wife and a daughter had died of yellow fever in the meantime. He later moved to South Carolina and Georgia.[5]
In 2021, a bust honoring him was installed in Marianna's Downtown Court Square.[6]
See also
References
External links
