[4] He attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and studied under Rev.

[3][5] He served as pastor at the Claim Street Baptist Church in Aurora, Illinois.

[8] Much of the book A New Negro for a New Century is rooted in late 18th-century ideas about race, and is considered to be outdated racial theory in the 21st-century.

[2][8] The book may have been written in order to refute claims made by President Theodore Roosevelt in Scribner's Magazine in 1899 about "racial fitness"[2] or possibly in order to move the dialogue passed popular 18th-century Black stereotypes, such as fictionalized plantation stories, vaudeville, and "scientific racism".

[8] Wood dedicated some 20 years to researching, lecturing and writing about Native Americans,[3] including his book Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs: From Cofachiqui, the Indian Princess, and Powhatan, Down to and Including Chief Joseph and Geronimo (1906).