[4] In a 2012 interview, Wilson talked about remembering the newspapers his father would read, like The Amsterdam News, which had images of lynchings in "every other issue.

[4] In 1947, Wilson graduated from Tufts University while teaching at Boris Mirski School of Modern Art.

[3] After returning from Paris, he joined the faculty of the museum school in 1949 where he was to teach second-year painting and some elementary courses.

[7] Wilson and Kowitch were an interracial couple and were forced to drive in separate cars when they traveled in the Southern United States.

[1] In Mexico, Wilson was drawn to mural paintings due to their accessibility to anyone regardless of one's means to get into museums or collections.

For example, when driving to New York City with Erica and her son, Wilson drew a series of sketches of his infant grandson.

[11] In 1963 artist/educator, Hale Woodruff chose him as one of 24 Black artists to be featured in Ebony magazine's special edition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

"[12] He was a fixture in the annual Atlanta University "Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, and Prints by Negro Artists of America," which ran from 1942 to 1970.

Others included Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Frank Neal, Selma Burke, Ellis Wilson, Dox Thrash and photographer Roy DeCarava.

The works were first shown at the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston and the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.

[53][54] In 1992, his drawing "Streetcar Scene (1945)" was featured on the cover of the catalog for the traveling exhibit "Alone in a Crowd: Prints by  African-American Artists of the 1930s-1940s" of works in the collection of Reba and Dave Williams.

[1] In 1996, he was represented in a traveling exhibit titled "In the Spirit of Resistance: African-American Modernists and the Mexican Muralist School" that focused on the influence of Mexico's graphics workshop on Black artists during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

"[61][62] In 20l9, the Yale University Art Gallery mounted a traveling exhibit titled "Reckoning with 'The Incident': John Wilson's Studies for a Lynching Mural', which focused on Wilson's 1952 mural that he painted while at La Esmeralda, the national school of art in Mexico.

Wilson's most famous and viewed work is the bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr. that stands three feet tall in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C..

He won the sculptural commission in 1985 as part of a national competition to create a memorial statue of the civil rights leader.

[1] One of Wilson's most overtly politically charged works, a lithograph called "Deliver Us From Evil," was created while he was a student of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1943.

"[1] The subject of this lithograph is one of the Boston Navy Yard workers, wearing workman's coveralls, a cap, and holding a metal lunchbox, riding alongside fashionable women.

[65] The rich color palette is made up of mostly reds, whites, and browns, evoking a feeling of warmth from the painting.

"[1] The bold lines and shadows in this work in addition to the diagonal composition of the bust create a sense of urgency.

[1] He described the country as "a world that promised freedom and opportunity for anyone who worked hard… but clearly if you are black you realize that these nice sounding phrases did not include you."

The result was a "sensitive" depiction of the civil rights hero, which "focuses on King's face, manipulating the rich lights and darks of the etching by scraping and burnishing the plate."

Eventually, the Museum of Fine Arts purchased this print, along with the copper plate and the nineteen working proofs that Wilson made.

Wilson's raw and powerful depictions of Martin Luther King, Jr. convey his indirect involvement with the civil rights movement.

[1] Wilson illustrated several children's books, including Jean C. George's "Spring Comes to the Ocean," 1965; Joan Lexau's "Striped Ice Cream," 1968; Willis Oliver's "New Worlds of Reading," 1959, and one by his wife titled "Becky" in 1967.

Additionally, Wilson's drawing "Steel Worker" was used for the cover design of The Reporter on July 23, 1959, and is currently housed in the Princeton University Art Museum.

"[66] In 1952, Wilson made the lithograph "The Trial" depicting a young black man awaiting a pronouncement from three looming white judges.

[1] But Wilson, coming a generation later and living through the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, wanted his art to convey a message and make people think.

"[1] Wilson helped found a museum called the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) in Roxbury, where he was born.

His grandson, Zack Wilson is an upcoming and acclaimed Hip-hop and Jazz musician performing under the Artist name 'Diz,' who is currently based in Boston, Massachusetts.