William H. Kitchin

William Hodge Kitchin (December 22, 1837 – February 2, 1901) was a one-term U.S. Congressional representative from North Carolina. A Confederate war veteran and white supremacist, Kitchin spent much of his political career attempting to curb African American advances within the state. He left a North Carolina political dynasty of sorts, as his sons, Claude Kitchin and William Walton Kitchin, and a grandson, Alvin Paul Kitchin, were all prominent politicians, and another son, Thurman Delna Kitchin, was a long-time president of Wake Forest College.

Kitchin was born in Lauderdale County, Alabama, December 22, 1837. He moved with his parents to North Carolina in 1841 and later attended Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia. He left college in April 1861 to enlist in the Confederate States Army, was promoted to the rank of captain in 1863 and served throughout the Civil War. After the war, Kitchin studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1869 and practiced in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. He traveled to California to settle a land claim that resulted in a princely fee for him of $20,000; as an obituary in his home town newspaper noted upon his death thirty years later, the money made him "easy" in the business world.

In 1878, Kitchin was elected from North Carolina's 2nd U.S. House district as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth United States Congress (March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881). His election was tainted by accusations of irregularities and was aided by a split among Republicans between candidates James E. O'Hara and James Harris (both African-Americans). O'Hara unsuccessfully contested the election.

...
Wikipedia