Though the Great Migration to California most often drew seekers from states like Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, Wilson County natives also joined the tide that increased the African-American population of that state exponentially.
- Best, Harper, and Rosa England Best, San Jose, 1880s
- Darden, Charles S., Los Angeles, ca. 1905
- Freeman, Joseph T., Los Angeles, bef. 1920
- Morgan, Lee, Oakland, betw. 1935-1940 (in Seattle, Washington, prior)
- Eason, Elizabeth Hines, Los Angeles, ca. 1936
- Williams, Oscar, Los Angeles, bef. 1940
- Haskins, Robert, Los Angeles, bef. 1940
- Dupree, Samuel C., Oakland, bef. 1940
- DeBell, Oscar, Los Angeles, bef. 1940 (in New York, N.Y., prior)
- Desvigne, Edna Taylor, Los Angeles, late 1940s
- Hines, Walter D., Los Angeles, ca. 1948 (in Detroit, Michigan, prior)
Perhaps the first nationally known Wilson native to take up residence in California arrived not in the Great Migration, but as a result of the National Football League draft. The Los Angeles Rams drafted Saint Augustine’s College defensive end Isaac T. Lassiter in 1962, and he later spent five seasons with the Oakland Raiders, playing in the 1967 Super Bowl. Lassiter was born in 1940 in Wilson to Dempsey and Mary Jane Bynum Lassiter and graduated from C.H. Darden High School.
Hat tip to Bernard Patterson for the football card image.