The Times published the full program of commencement exercises for Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute’s first graduating class. The composition of the school’s board of directors reveals the depth of investment by East Wilson’s elite. (Even veterinarian E.L. Reid, whose brother J.D. Reid lit the match that started the public school boycott conflagration.)

Wilson Times, 28 May 1919.

• Harry C. Eldridge and J. Bassett Willard published Arcticania, or Columbia’s Trip to the North Pole, an Operetta in Two Acts, a “juvenile fairy spectable,” in 1916. Eldridge and Elizabeth F. Guptill published Midsummer Eve, a Musical Fairy Play for Children in 1920.
• S.H. Vick — Samuel H. Vick, former teacher, former postmaster, real estate developer.
• W.S. Hines — Walter S. Hines, barber.
• W.H. Phillips — William H. Phillips, dentist.
• N.J. Tate — Noah J. Tate, barber.
• C.L. Darden — Camillus L. Darden, undertaker and business owner.
• W.A. Mitchner — William A. Mitchner, physician.
• J.W. Rogers — John W. Rogers, businessman.
• D.C. Yancy — Darcy C. Yancey, pharmacist.
• M.H. Wilson — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 126 Pender Street, Virginia-born house contractor Mansfield H. Wilson, 60; son Samuel H., 20; and sister-in-law Lucy Richards, 40.
• L.A. Moore — Lee A. Moore, merchant and insurance agent.
• William Hines — barber and real estate developer.
• E.L. Reid — Elijah L. Reid, veterinarian.
• A.L.E. Weeks — Alfred L.E. Weeks, Baptist minister.
• R.R. Forman — Organist, pianist and composer Allie Waling Forman (1855-1937) registered her work under the name Mrs. R.R. Forman.
• Frederic Boscovitz composed the duet “Bella Napoli” in 1900.
• Rogenia Barnes — in the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Manchester Street,
• Lillian Wilson
• Boisey Barnes — Boisey O. Barnes, half-brother of Walter and William Hines.
• Lester Mitchell
• Willard Crawford
• Addie Davis — Addie Davis Butterfield, daughter of Baptist minister Fred M. Davis Sr.
• Jos. Rosemond Johnson — James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) composed “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” as a poem in 1900, and his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) set it to music in 1905. In 1919, the year of the Industrial School graduation, the NAACP dubbed the song the “Negro National Anthem.”
• R.N. Perry — Robert N. Perry, Episcopal priest.