[2] Raised by adoptive parents on the Eastern Shore, Wilson quit college to become an organizer and later national vice chairman for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

"[3] In the 1960s, Wilson was active in the civil rights movement, first with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and then with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

[4] In 1969, Wilson moved to Washington, D.C. to become the legislative director for the National Sharecropper's Fund, an advocacy group for migrant farm workers.

Wilson served in 1974 as the chairman of the drive to approve the referendum to adopt the Home Rule Charter for the District of Columbia.

His early warnings about government overspending proved prophetic, eventually leading the U.S. Congress to establish a financial control board to oversee the city's finances for a number of years.