She served as the first president of the desegregated Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers and wrote four books on the racial and labor history of her country.
During her time in graduate school she went to work at Essex County College in New Jersey, where she became chair of the history department in 1978.
She then contributed to the 1974 collection Massa Day Dead?—Black Moods in the Caribbean, writing about "Bermuda and the Search for Blackness."
[2] Hodgson said that her experience in the 1940s and '50s living in Canada and England, which were less segregated environments—at least officially—heightened her awareness of the racial injustice she observed and experienced in Bermuda.
Hodgson became a longtime contributor to Bermudian periodicals' letter pages, helping shape the conversation on race and racism in the country.
[1] Bermudians were still subject to strict voting restrictions based on property ownership, and Parliament was dominated by powerful white businessmen.
She was frequently pressured to run for political office herself but always declined, having seen what she perceived as the failings and compromises of idealistic politicians after they were elected.
[4] She allied herself with newer organizations such as Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, whose General Council she served on until 2018, and continued to push for affirmative action and chastise the government for a lack of real progress until her death.
[3][8] Hodgson was named to the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 New Year Honors for her work serving the community in Bermuda.