Wilbur Fisk Tillett was born August 25, 1854, in Henderson, North Carolina,[1] which at that time was in Granville County (later Vance).
His father was an itinerant Methodist minister in North Carolina, John Tillett (1812–1890).
Tillett spent the bulk of his teaching career at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
[1][2] During his tenure, he invited Booker T. Washington to speak at Vanderbilt on the topic, "How can a young Southern man help in the lifting up of the Negro race?".
[1] Moreover, he argued that the emancipation of black slaves as a result of the American Civil War of 1861–65 had been good for white Southern men as it had turned them into self-reliant hard workers instead of idle planters.