Steward moved from South Carolina to pastor the AME church in Macon, Georgia March 17, 1868.

Colored Infantry, serving as its chaplain until 1907, including service in Cuba during the Spanish–American War, and in the Philippines.

He was a participant in the March 5, 1897 meeting to celebrate the memory of Frederick Douglass which founded the American Negro Academy led by Alexander Crummell.

[1] From the founding of the organization until his death in 1924, Steward remained active among the scholars, editors, and activists of this first major African American learned society, refuting racist scholarship, promoting black claims to individual, social, and political equality, and studying the history and sociology of African American life.

[2] Between 1907 and his death on January 11, 1924, Steward was a professor of history, French, and logic at Wilberforce University.