Around Winter of 1865 Past Most Worshipful Paul Drayton who was associated with the National Compact Grand Lodge in New York, met with James Walker Hood, at the time an ordained deacon in the AME Zion church who was preaching at Andrew’s Chapel in New Bern, NC. At the same time Paul Drayton was dedicating and constituting lodges throughout the southern portion of U.S.A; such as ‘Union Lodge’ in the city of Charleston, S.C.

Hood at this time associated with the Prince Hall Lodge of New York, became the principal spokesperson for the founding of the King Solomon Lodge in New Bern, N.C. There Hood served as the first Worshipful Master of King Solomon Lodge and the first Grand Master of the State of North Carolina (1870-1883). Superintending the southern jurisdiction of the Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge of New York and acted as a moving force behind the creation of the region's black Masonic lodges—often creating lodges and churches simultaneously in the same areas.

He later became the seventeenth Bishop in the AME Zion church. Hood also founded Livingstone College in North Carolina and was instrumental in founding many black churches throughout the south. During the late nineteenth century, James Walker Hood was bishop of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He founded North Carolina's denominational newspaper and college, author of five books including two histories of the AMEZ Church, appointed assistant superintendent of public instruction and magistrate in his adopted state. At his death in 1918, the Masonic Quarterly Review hailed Hood as “one of the strong pillars of our foundation.”