Nicholas Hood

Nicholas Hood Sr. (June 21, 1923 – April 10, 2016) was an American minister, civil rights activist, and politician. He served six terms as a member of the Detroit City Council.

Early life and career Nicholas Hood Sr. was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1923, the youngest of eight children born to Orestes and Daisy Eslick Hood. His paternal grandfather was a former slave who managed a brickyard in Martinsville, Indiana. His father was an electrician and a teacher; his mother was a graduate of Fisk University who had been a teacher and social worker.

Hood grew up under Jim Crow segregation in Terre Haute. For grade school, he went to Booker T. Washington School, which served only black students; he did not attend an integrated school until he reached junior high. He then went to Wiley High School, graduating in 1940. As a student in the recently integrated school, it was made clear to him that his presence was unwelcome – an experience Hood later described as "very difficult".

Under Rev. Hood's leadership, Plymouth Congregational Church created an active housing ministry and went on to purchase nearly fifty acres of "urban renewal" land.

Hood remained the senior pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church until 1985, when he retired and became pastor emeritus.

Politics In 1965, Hood was elected to the Detroit City Council. He was the second black council member in the history of that body. One notable battle was with the Detroit hospitals, which refused to hire black medical staff members. Hood and a coalition of physicians used anti-discrimination requirements attached to urban-renewal land purchases to block the hospitals from expanding until they agreed to hire black doctors.

Personal life Nicholas Hood Sr. married Dr. Elizabeth Flemister Hood in 1949. The 42-year marriage ended with her death in 1991.

The couple had three children: Sarah, Stephen, and Nicholas. Stephen Hood has worked as a political consultant and Wayne County official.

Rev. Nicholas Hood III is the current pastor of Plymouth United Church of Christ in Detroit and a former city council member himself, as well as a candidate in the 2001 Detroit mayoral election.

Hood remarried on December 4, 1993, to Doris Chenault Hood, a public school administrator.

Death and legacy Rev. Nicholas Hood Sr. died in Detroit, Michigan in 2016 at the age of 92. Fellow civil rights leader and politician Andrew Young gave the eulogy at his funeral. Speakers at the dedication ceremony included SCLC leader Dr. Charles Steele, City Council president Brenda Jones, and Senator Carl Levin.