"James Walker Hood"(May 30,1831-October 30,1918)

Of  African American Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,was born in Chester County Pennsylvania,the son of a preacher.In1856John was licensed to preach in New York.He began as  preaching in Nova Scotia in 1860,served later at Bridge Connecticut,and then to North Carolina,where his successful work exalted him to the bishopric in 1872.He was elected president of the convention of Negroes assembled in October Raleigh in October,1865,one of  the,first if not the first,political conviction of this sort ever assembled in the South.He was such a fearless advocate for equal rights for the Negro that the people around him warned that his life would be in danger if he did not desist.In 1867,James was elected as delegate to the constitutional convention of North Carolina.He took an active part in framing the fundamental law and incorporating into it liberal provisions for homesteads and public schools.In 1880,James was ordained AME deacon of New Haven,Connecticut.In 1884,James published the first collection of sermons by An African American,"The Negro in the Christian Pulpit."His other works includes "One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion Church,"1895,and "The Plan of the Apocalypse," 1900.James informally advised President Theodore Roosevelt from 1901-1909.