During the American Civil War he went to New Bern, North Carolina, where he preached for the church to the black people and soldiers in the area.

[2] He was politically and religiously active as well, supporting education, civil rights, and the ordination of women.

Between 1848 and 1863, he noted that conductors on the Pennsylvania railroads many times tried to remove him from the first class cars, but rarely succeeded.

In 1855, he moved to New York City and in 1856 was licensed to preach in a branch of the Union Church of Africans.

[4] In 1860 he was ordained deacon in the AME Zion church, an independent black denomination founded in New York.

Hood was sent to North Carolina to replace another missionary, John Williams, who was not prompt enough in travelling south due to safety issues.

Black soldiers stationed at New Bern at that time did not have a chaplain, and Hood often preached to the troops.

Hood was present for attacks on New Bern by Confederate troops before the war ended,[2] although not under direct fire.

The document was amended in 1875 and many of the provisions Hood fought to include were weakened or removed bywhites who had regained dominance.

His influence was strongly felt in the provision of rights for blacks in homestead law and at public school.

[2] His office in the school board were in Raleigh, while his primary church responsibilities were in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The remaining Sunday he would preach for Methodist and Baptist congregations in Raleigh, as there was not yet an AME Zion church in that city.

[2] Before 1870 he received a commission from General Oliver O. Howard as assistant superintendent of schools in the Freedmen's Bureau.

[6] He was elected a member of the Ecumenical Conference in London in 1881,[2] and was president of that body in 1891 when it met in Washington DC.