Political Career
In 1892, he ran unsuccessfully for the North Carolina Senate but was later elected for six terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1897 to 1909. With other members of his family, he was an active participant in leading to the approval of a state constitutional amendment in 1900 placing numerous disabilities on the right of black Tar Heels to vote. Limited to one term as governor by the state constitution of the time, Kitchin ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1912. His tenure as governor was highly productive: he increased expenditures for public education and public health services, oversaw expansion of railroads and increased stability of the state's banks.
After completing his term, Governor Kitchin practiced law in Raleigh, NC until 1919, when his declining health led him to retire to his home in Scotland Neck, NC. He died in 1924 and is buried in the Scotland Neck Baptist Cemetery.
Read more about this topic: William Walton Kitchin
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