For more than 30 years after gaining the right to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment, African-American men in Wilson County exercised the franchise widely, holding key positions in the local Republican Party and serving as poll holders in voting districts in nearly every township.
Wilson Advance, 6 October 1882.
- Orren Best — born enslaved about 1849 in Greene County, N.C.
- Noel Jones — born free about 1845 in Oldfields township, Wilson County [then Nash County.]
- Hilliard Ellis — born enslaved about 1827, probably in Taylor township, Wilson County [then Nash County.]
- Alfred Woodard — born enslaved about 1830.
- A. Bynum — perhaps Amos Bynum, born enslaved about 1840.