Once the faculty and students settled down after the big shakeup of 1927, the first few years of the Drake administration seemed to move along smoothly. However, the stock market crash of 1929 bode poorly for the future of the Institute, and, consequently, for Wilson as well. In 1930 James’ oldest child, Hester, turned eighteen and was ready for college, and the elder son, James, Jr., was just two years behind his sister. Wilson knew college costs for two would draw heavily upon his financial resources, and he also realized he would turn fifty years of age come December. He was no longer a young man, and his years show clearly in a photograph with the 1933 Alabama A. & M. band (Figure 10-1, opposite). In the lower right-hand corner one can see a distinguished but elderly gentleman holding a trumpet pictured alongside a group of definitely younger musicians.

When Wilson thought about his future, he became increasingly aware that his youngest child, Marian, was only eleven, and would be needing tuition money for college even after his 60th birthday. Where would sufficient resources come from, and how had the years passed so quickly? After all, life expectancy at birth for all American males in 1930 was fifty-eight years, and only forty-seven years for African-American men. James had already passed that benchmark. And he also worried about his job. Even though all the students referred to him as “Professor Wilson,” he knew it was a courtesy and not a reality. He had never received a professorial appointment at A. & M. He was, in fact, a member of the staff, a bookkeeper promoted to financial secretary who served as bandmaster and Superintendent of the Sunday School. If truth be told, he felt blessed to be allowed to teach the Sunday School Teacher Preparation class and an occasional Bible class. As time progressed it became ever more apparent to him, especially when he participated in the Executive Committee meetings, that President Drake was being forced to upgrade his faculty as well as the programs and facilities in order to reinstate the institution to its former four-year college status. Drake was constantly searching for highly qualified African-American men and women with advanced degrees, and James could only boast a high school diploma.