Norman Wilson Sr. was born January 27, 1913, in Gibsland, Louisiana to Leon P. Wilson and Flavia Matthews. He graduated high school from Coleman College and attended Leland College in Atlanta, Georgia, for a year. Wilson received his bachelor of arts in 1935 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. On September 3, 1937, he married Ernestine Darby. They had two children. Desiring to pursue a master's degree, he rode freight trains across the country for two weeks to Brigham Young University, a historically white university, where he became the first Black student to receive a degree. Wilson graduated with his master's degree in agricultural economics in 1938, moved on to advanced studies in economics at Harvard University from 1944 to 1946, and earned a doctorate at the University of Missouri in 1960. Wilson taught at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina for thirteen years, and in 1960, began working at Southern University in New Orleans, Louisiana. At Southern University, Wilson founded the Business Economic Department, retiring in 1983. Norman Wilson Sr. passed away February 12, 1997, in New Orleans, Louisiana.