Arthur J. Wilson
*Arthur J. Wilson was born on this date in 1923. He was a Black Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
From Omaha, NB., Arthur Jewell Wilson was the son of Maynard Wilson, who served as secretary to the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, for nearly 20 years. He graduated from the University of Illinois and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha. Then, he went to work for Hygienic Manufacturing Company, where Anthony Overton cultivated his interest in business.
He later became a cashier at Binga State Bank and, in 1923, qualified for his CPA license, becoming the second Black CPA in the United States and the first in Illinois. Because most states required work experience in accounting before licensing, many Black accountants reported difficulty meeting the requirements due to trouble finding employment with a white-owned CPA firm. After serving in the Navy during WW2, he returned to Chicago and married Marcella Frances. Wilson was able to obtain licensure due, in part, to the fact that the state of Illinois had not yet enacted legislation requiring apprenticeship to become a CPA.
He, in turn, mentored other aspiring Black CPAs, and by 1945, half of all Black CPAs in the United States worked in the Chicago area. He was the mentor to Mary T. Washington. Wilson eventually went on to serve as Vice-President of Binga State Bank. His son, Arthur Jewell Wilson, Jr., was a standout basketball player at Princeton University and later the chief of police of East St. Louis, Illinois. Arthur J. Wilson died on December 20, 2000, and is buried at Abraham Lincoln Cemetery, Ellwood, Illinois.
