In 1915, Wood turned up at the scene of the lynching of Leo Frank, Jewish factory owner in Atlanta, with Judge Newt Morris on the morning after the murder.

Whether he had any prior knowledge of or involvement with the lynching is open to dispute, as he and Morris may have been simply trying to ensure Frank's body had a decent burial.

[1][2][3] Entering politics, Wood was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1917; served as Solicitor General of the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit, 1921–1925.

As chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, he had a prominent role in investigating the American Communist Party and the entertainment industry; the committee charged 10 persons with contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, and their careers and reputations were severely damaged in what was called the Hollywood Blacklist.

Wood was criticized for failing to investigate the Ku Klux Klan in the same period, as it was expanding in chapters in opposition to civil rights activism by African-Americans.