He graduated from Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi in 1934 and, after several years as an itinerant laborer in Arizona and Chicago, moved to Las Vegas in 1942.
There he obtained employment at the American Potash and Chemical Company, where he worked for thirty-eight years, retiring as a foreman.
[1][2] Despite being a Republican in the heavily Democratic House 4th district, Wilson was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1966 and served three terms through 1972.
As a member of the Assembly's education, civil defense, veterans affairs, and social welfare committees, he was instrumental in enacting the Nevada Fair Housing Act in 1971, along with bills to mandate fair employment practices and improve vocational education and workers' compensation.
He remained a respected figure within the Black community, and his supporters contended that the FBI sting amounted to an entrapment scheme.