As World War I shifted the federal government's focus to foreign policy, Kitchin became increasingly alarmed by the prospect of U.S. becoming a combatant. In April 1917, when PresidentWoodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, Kitchin delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor and then voted no.
Kitchen attended Wake Forest College, graduating in 1888. Afterward, he read law and served as assistant registrar of deeds in the county. He was admitted to the bar in September 1890.
During the 1890s, Kitchin helped mobilize the Red Shirts, armed groups of militant white supremacists who rode through rural communities dissuading blacks from voting. These groups functioned as an arm of state's Democratic Party, and it was his effectiveness during the run-up to the 1896 and 1898 elections that gave rise to his congressional career.
In 1898, Kitchin helped lead the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, a violent coup d'état by a group of white supremacists. At a November 1 rally in Laurinburg, Kitchin was cheered by a crowd of several thousand whites when he proclaimed, "We cannot outnumber the negroes...And so we must either outcheat, outcount or outshoot them." He announced that any black constable attempting to arrest a white man would be lynched.[2] On the day after the election, white citizens of Wilmington expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people.[3]
Congressional career
Kitchin was first elected to Congress from North Carolina's 2nd district in 1900. He was re-elected 11 times, serving until his death.
In Congress, he served on the House Ways and Means Committee, chairing the Committee from 1915 to 1919. From 1915 to 1919 he was House majority leader; from this position he opposed the Wilson administration's "Preparedness" crusade, seeking unsuccessfully to hold down the growth in size of the army and navy.
He was among the few members of Congress who voted against the U.S. declaration of war on Germany in April 1917 (approved 373–50 by the House and 82–6 by the Senate). Afterward, he fully supported the war effort, though he remained a critic of some of the administration's war policies, especially regarding taxation policies. He championed an "excess profits" tax that was steeply progressive over a policy of selling Liberty Bonds that shifted the financial burden of the war onto future generations.
After giving an impassioned speech in March 1920 he suffered a severe stroke, from which he never fully recovered. During the winter of 1922–23 he contracted influenza and pneumonia, and, died from complications on May 31, 1923. He is buried in Scotland Neck, North Carolina at the Trinity Episcopal Cemetery.
^Watson Jr.,Richard L. (1988). "Kitchin, Claude" in Powell, William S. (ed.). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved October 20, 2024 – via NCpedia.
Arnett, Alex Mathews. Claude Kitchin Versus the Patrioteers. North Carolina Historical Review 14.1 (1937): 20–30. online
Arnett. Alex M. Claude Kitchin and the Wilson War Policies (1937). xii + 341 pp.
Herring, George C. James Hay and the Preparedness Controversy, 1915-1916. Journal of Southern History 30.4 (1964): 383–404.
Watson, Richard L. Jr. (1988). Kitchin, Claude 24 Mar. 1869–31 May 1923. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. Via ncpedia.org.
Zucchino, David (2020). Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN9780802128386.
