Salisbury, North Carolina · Founded 1879
“A 140-plus-year-old A.M.E. Zion seminary in Salisbury, NC, training pastors for the Black church — and a dozen other denominations — out of a converted Holiday Inn.”
Full recording of the 2021 commencement, held virtually during the pandemic — the class that finished seminary through COVID.
The seminary's most recent commencement, celebrating the 2026 graduates.
Fall 2023 opening convocation, preached by MDiv '80 alumnus and Wilmington city councilman Rev. Dr. Clifford Barnett Sr. — the official start of the academic year.
Fall 2024 opening convocation, preached by 2014 class valedictorian, presiding elder, and UNC law graduate Rev. Dr. Laticia Hill Godette — an alumna at the pulpit.
First of two recordings from the 2024 Ruben L. Speaks lecture series: retired UMC Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer lectures on the future of the UMC, with AME Zion Senior Bishop Darryl Starnes responding — ecumenical dialogue hosted by a Black seminary.
Second recording from the 2024 Speaks lecture series sessions with Bishop Palmer and Bishop Starnes.
Faculty scholarship on public display: a virtual event on philately, Black women's suffrage, and inclusive history — the kind of public-facing teaching Hood's professors do.
President Vergel L. Lattimore makes the case for theological education — the seminary's mission in its own leader's voice.
United Methodist studies teacher Rev. Fred Jordan on why theological education matters.
Affiliate professor of Christian education Dr. Mary Love on the importance of theological education.
Adjunct professor of practical theology Rev. Dr. Kevin Griffin on the importance of theological education.
Biblical studies instructor Rev. Grinter on the importance of theological education.
A.M.E. Zion bishop and former senior bishop of the denomination; MDiv '72. Served on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board 1978–1995 (chair 1990–1995); died March 9, 2025, eulogized as 'a prince and a great man' of the church.
Senior bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church; MDiv '82, consecrated bishop 2008; preached the 2025 Hood commencement at Varick Auditorium.
108th bishop in A.M.E. Zion succession; MDiv from Hood; pastored Trinity A.M.E. Zion in Greensboro for 12 years; co-author and gospel recording artist ('God Stepped In,' 2023).
107th bishop in A.M.E. Zion succession (elected July 31, 2021); MDiv '95; inducted into Morehouse College's Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers (2014); author on prayer and church renewal.
A.M.E. Zion bishop and Hood's Bishop-in-Residence; preached the 2026 Opening Convocation; inducted into Livingstone's UNCF 'Share Your Love' Leadership Hall of Fame (2021).
Retired bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church; Hood alumnus.
Bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church; Hood alumnus.
Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and author of 'Black Man in the Old Testament'; Hood alumnus (d. 1995).
Associate professor of pastoral theology at Yale Divinity School, 1971–1987 — one of the Black theologians who carried Hood's name into the Ivy League; the seminary's Leon W. Watts II Visiting Scholar in Black Theology is named for him.
MDiv '80; pastor of Warner Temple A.M.E. Zion Church, Wilmington, NC; Wilmington City Council member; preached the Fall 2023 Opening Convocation.
Valedictorian of the 2014 class; presiding elder in the A.M.E. Zion Church; UNC-Chapel Hill law graduate and Hood adjunct faculty in church history; preached the Fall 2024 Opening Convocation.
The seminary's first Doctor of Ministry graduate (January 2005) — the proof that Hood's young DMin program worked.
At the 14th session of the North Carolina Conference of the A.M.E. Zion Church, convened in Salisbury on November 28, 1877, C. R. Harris presented a paper signed by Thurber, Harris, and Rives 'on the establishment of a Theological Seminary in this State.' It was adopted. The plan called for electing trustees, selling building stock at $10 a share (minimum 500 shares, each church allowed at least one), with each share entitling its representative to a year's tuition — a grassroots, church-funded model for training Black ministers in Reconstruction-era North Carolina.
The pioneers Bishop James Walker Hood inspired created the Zion Wesley Institute in Concord, NC. Hood, a presiding bishop who had led the first statewide political convention for African Americans in 1865 and helped write North Carolina's 1868 constitution, wanted an institution to train Black youths for the Christian ministry. The school that would one day house Hood Theological Seminary was born here.
By invitation of the citizens of Salisbury, the Institute relocated to that city and opened in 1882. Dr. Joseph Charles Price — who would become one of the most famous Black educators of the 19th century — was named the institution's first president and served until his death in 1893. During his tenure the collegiate school became the arts and science faculty and the seminary became the theological department of the growing institution.
The Rev. George Lincoln Blackwell became the first dean of the theological department — the first named head of what would become Hood Theological Seminary. The department was the first institution in North Carolina founded specifically to train Black people for the Christian ministry, and it carried the denomination's 'Freedom Church' identity from the start.
The Institute was chartered by the State of North Carolina and renamed Livingstone College in honor of Scottish physician and African explorer Dr. David Livingstone. The theological department remained its divinity school, training the preachers who would staff A.M.E. Zion pulpits across the South. (The seminary's own alumni association later named its signature fundraiser the '1885 Society' — 'named for the Seminary's founding year' — a small wrinkle against the official 1879 founding date.)
The school ran a PhD program from 1895 until its dissolution in 1902 — an unusually ambitious graduate program for a Black institution in the Jim Crow South. Its end marked the limits of what a small church school could sustain in that era, and the seminary narrowed its focus to ministerial training.
The school of divinity inaugurated its Bachelor of Divinity degree, formalizing the path from the collegiate course into ordained ministry. A year later the college began raising funds for a dedicated seminary building — the first sign that the theological department was outgrowing borrowed space.
The cornerstone was laid for the $20,000 seminary building first envisioned in the 1904 fundraising drive, and the school was named for Bishop James Walker Hood — the first time the seminary carried the name it still bears. The photograph of 'the seminary and its president, W. H. Goler, c. 1910' dates to this era, when the Hood building anchored theological education on the Livingstone campus.
By 1927 the graduate divinity program had ceased operations, as had its teaching programs — a casualty of the Depression-era squeeze on small Black colleges. The seminary went quiet until it was reorganized and reopened in 1934 as a graduate school, regaining full accreditation. The 1934 reopening is the line the modern seminary draws its graduate identity from.
The Church erected a new building for the Seminary on land adjacent to the college, donated by Bishop and Mrs. William Jacob Walls, at a cost of $465,000: the W.J. Walls Center, a three-story building with a distinctive A-frame chapel. Dorm rooms for single students and married-student apartments filled the top floor; the library and faculty offices sat on the main floor; classrooms and a student lounge were on the ground. It was built for an era when the student body was small and nearly all male — a world the school would later outgrow entirely.
Hood became an associate member of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), its first step into the mainstream American theological-accreditation system. Two decades later the ATS granted candidacy status (1995) and then initial accreditation for five years in 1998, approving the Master of Divinity program and giving preliminary approval to the Master of Theological Studies. Accreditation is what lets the seminary prepare students for ordination across denominations today.
In a bold move, the Livingstone College board stepped outside A.M.E. Zion ranks to hire United Methodist scholar Dr. Albert J. D. Aymer — an Antiguan trained at the London School of Theology, Lancaster Theological Seminary, and Drew University, where he had taught fourteen years — as Dean of Hood. Aymer sparked explosive growth: he raised the library's quality, modernized the MDiv curriculum, converted the Master of Religious Education into the Master of Theological Studies, created a certificate program for ministers without bachelor's degrees, launched a Doctor of Ministry program, won approval to prepare students for United Methodist ordination, and hired a bigger, stronger, ecumenically diverse faculty. Within a few years enrollment grew from thirty to three hundred students from a dozen denominations, including a high percentage of women — and, most unusually for a historically Black school, as many as a third of the students were white.
At its 45th General Conference, the A.M.E. Zion Church voted to separate the Seminary from the College — ending a 122-year institutional marriage. In 2001 the Seminary received its own charter from the State of North Carolina, the ATS approved it as an accredited freestanding school of theology, and Dean Aymer was inaugurated as its first President. William Orlando Carrington was named the seminary's first full-time dean. The two schools remain sister institutions under A.M.E. Zion sponsorship, with separate boards.
The Seminary launched its Doctor of Ministry program in January 2002, and in January 2005 the Rev. Dr. Grant Harrison became its first DMin graduate, followed by six others that May. In 2003 Hood took on a new program preparing United Methodist students for ordination to deacon's orders — seven students earned certificates in basic theological studies in 2005. The little Salisbury seminary was becoming the A.M.E. Zion denomination's graduate engine.
The A.M.E. Zion Church bought the old Holiday Inn motel property on Lutheran Synod Drive (the school's own accounts date the purchase to 2002 and 2004; both agree on the move). Architect Karen Kirks Alexander — later mayor of Salisbury — redesigned the motel into classrooms, offices, a chapel, and housing, keeping plenty of rooms for students and space for a future multipurpose building. In the fall of 2005 the seminary officially relocated to 1810 Lutheran Synod Drive. Adaptive reuse of a vacant motel became the physical signature of the independent seminary.
After a year of construction, the seminary dedicated the Albert J. D. Aymer Center for Spiritual Growth and Ministerial Formation — a 10,000-square-foot, sustainably built multipurpose facility named for the founding president. Its Refectory Hall, café, Battle-Davidson Conference Room, Stanback commercial kitchen, and Mona Lisa Wallace Plaza gave the school its first real gathering space. It now hosts Opening Convocation, the Endowment Convocation, and the Black History Celebration each year.
Dr. Trevor Eppehimer — Messinger-Williams Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics — was named academic dean. Eppehimer, a scholar of theology and ethics, remains the seminary's chief academic officer today, overseeing its MDiv, MTS, MACM, and DMin programs.
After twenty years leading the school — first as dean, then as the independent seminary's founding president — Dr. Albert J. D. Aymer spent the 2013–14 academic year on sabbatical and retired on June 30, 2014, becoming President Emeritus. The board named the Rev. Dr. Vergel L. Lattimore president-elect: a retired brigadier general in the Air National Guard who had served one year as Hood's vice president for academic affairs after 21 years on the faculty of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (most recently as Beegly Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling). A Livingstone College, Duke Divinity, and Northwestern graduate and A.M.E. Zion elder, Lattimore took office in July 2014 and still leads the seminary.
The seminary created the Institute of Early Career Clergy Development (IECCD), backed by Lilly Endowment's Thriving in Ministry initiative, to give new pastors mentors, peer cohorts, and survival skills for the first hard years of ministry. The IECCD — consultation, education, mentoring, and partnership — made Hood a national player in the conversation about why young clergy burn out and how to stop it.
When COVID-19 displaced families across Rowan County, Rowan Helping Ministries asked Hood for help — and President Lattimore said yes. Over two years, the seminary turned its campus into a refuge: 90 families, roughly 360 people, were housed in the NeighborHood residence halls, with orientation by security and housing staff, free on-campus laundry, an outdoor play area for children, remote-learning space, and weekly meals and transportation from RHM. Worship moved online into 'Wednesday Words of Encouragement' videos and virtual chapel services. It was the school's founding mission — shelter for the marginalized — acted out with dorm keys.
Hood won a $10,000 Climate Change and Theological Education seed grant and began weaving creation care into the curriculum — consistent with the green Aymer Center and the motel-recycling campus ethos. The same year, the 2021 commencement went virtual (May 15, 2021) and the school congratulated the class that finished seminary through a pandemic.
Three milestones landed in one year. The ATS Board of Commissioners reaffirmed Hood's accreditation for ten years — until March 31, 2034 — after its comprehensive visit. The school announced a brand-new degree, the Master of Arts in Christian Ministry (MACM), for students whose denominations don't require the MDiv for ordination. And the annual Ruben L. Speaks Endowed Memorial Lecture Series brought retired United Methodist Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer to campus, with AME Zion Senior Bishop Darryl Starnes responding on the future of the UMC — a public ecumenical dialogue hosted by a historically Black seminary.
The seminary received a $1.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment's Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative — one of 20 organizations nationwide — to fund the Institute for Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns at Hood, led by Program Director Rev. Damita Wilder. The same season brought the 2025 commencement (May 17 at Livingstone's Varick Auditorium, with Senior Bishop Darryl B. Starnes Sr. preaching from Psalm 78 on shepherding), the Bishop Alfred E. and Mrs. Mamie White Endowed Heritage Lecture Series, and the launch of the Shalom Teaching Institute's inaugural conference on 'Striving for Justice, Love, and Belonging.'
No band: Hood is a graduate-only theological seminary with no athletics program, no marching band, and no undergraduate student body. Its sister school Livingstone College has the marching band tradition; Hood trains pastors and chaplains. The schema's band section is included here only to state this plainly, not to pad it.
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No Greek-letter organizations. Hood Theological Seminary is a graduate-only seminary; community life centers on worship, lectures, and denominational fellowship rather than fraternities or sororities.
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The college began raising funds for a dedicated seminary building in 1904. The cornerstone for the $20,000 structure was laid in 1906, and the building was named for Bishop James Walker Hood himself — giving the theological department its first permanent home on the Livingstone campus.
The seminary moved into a new three-story building that featured an A-frame chapel. The top floor held dorm rooms for single students and married-student apartments; the main floor carried the library and faculty offices; the ground floor had classrooms and a student lounge. Built for $465,000 on land donated by Bishop and Mrs. William Jacob Walls, it was named the W.J. Walls Center. It suited an era when the student body was small and nearly all male.
The A.M.E. Zion Church purchased a former Holiday Inn motel property on Lutheran Synod Drive that had sat unoccupied for years. The purchase — dated 2002 on the school's history page and 2004 in its academic catalogue — gave the newly independent seminary room to grow far beyond what the Walls Center could hold.
Phase one of the master plan remodeled the motel buildings into classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, a temporary chapel and library, two residence halls, a temporary refectory, and a student lounge. Local Salisbury architect Karen Kirks Alexander redesigned the spaces; plenty of rooms were kept for housing and ground was left for a future multipurpose building and dining hall. The school officially relocated to 1810 Lutheran Synod Drive in the fall of 2005.
After a year-long construction project, the seminary dedicated a new 10,000-square-foot multipurpose facility: the Albert J. D. Aymer Center for Spiritual Growth and Ministerial Formation, named for the seminary's first president. It holds the Refectory Hall (3,750 sq. ft.), the Refectory Café, the Battle-Davidson Conference Room, the Stanback commercial kitchen, the Christos Courtyard flanked by a Biblical Garden, the Koinonia Korner patio, and the 10,000-square-foot Mona Lisa Wallace Plaza. It was built as an environmentally and sustainably constructed building — part of the seminary's growing emphasis on creation care and energy conservation.
The seminary's two residence halls — known as the NeighborHood — house the student body alongside the Aymer Center, chapel, library, and classrooms. The NeighborHood later became the seminary's most distinctive facility asset: during the COVID-19 pandemic it was turned over to house displaced families (see History).
The academic catalogue's physical-facilities plan called for a next phase: renovating the former motel's kitchen and dining room into a new, expanded chapel and library, plus further refinement of the grounds. The school's catalogue documents the plan; its completion could not be confirmed from public sources.
The Aymer Center's green construction was not a one-off: the seminary framed its whole campus strategy around adaptive reuse and sustainability — recycling a vacant motel instead of building from scratch, with creation-care language written into its campus identity.
The early seminary was led by deans under Livingstone College: the Rev. George Lincoln Blackwell was the first dean, William Orlando Carrington the first full-time dean, and W. H. Goler is photographed as the seminary's president c. 1910. Under Aymer the faculty was deliberately rebuilt for size, quality, and ecumenical diversity — students today come from a dozen denominations with a high percentage of women, and as many as a third of students in a given year have been white, highly unusual for a historically Black school. Notable scholar-pastors on the roster include United Methodist studies teachers Rev. Fred Jordan and Dr. Mark Conforti, Christian education professor Dr. Mary Love, and biblical studies instructor Rev. Grinter.
Academic dean (named 2012) and Messinger-Williams Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics — the seminary's chief academic officer.
Dean of Students and George E. and Iris Battle Professor of Old Testament and Languages; a published Hebrew Bible scholar.
Associate Dean and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program; author of 'Managing Projects in Ministry' and 'MBA Quickbook for Ministers' (Judson Press); 35+ years of pastoral and denominational leadership in the A.M.E. Zion and United Methodist churches.
Acting Dean of Students for the 2023–2024 academic year, overseeing student affairs for the seminary's diverse student body.
Research professor of homiletics, preaching, and worship.
Affiliate faculty in practical theology; serves on the seminary's Center for Justice, Love & Belonging.
This is a graduate-only professional school — no undergraduates, no athletics, no homecoming game, no band, no Greek life. Community runs on worship and the word: Opening Convocation each September, the Ruben L. Speaks Endowed Memorial Lecture Series, the Bishop Alfred E. and Mrs. Mamie White Endowed Heritage Lecture Series, the All Hood Alumni and Friends Symposium, the 1885 Society Annual Banquet (the alumni scholarship fundraiser), the Endowment Convocation, and the Black History Celebration. Track I classes meet Tuesday–Thursday; Track II meets Friday–Saturday for working and commuting students. Virtual chapel and the 'Wednesday Words of Encouragement' video devotionals, born in the pandemic, remain part of the rhythm.