 Woods had been pastor of the First Metropolitan Baptist Church in the early 1960s and led the St. Joseph Baptist Church starting in 1967 as its pastor.In addition to his service as the president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Woods would often lead community marches to protest community violence, police shootings and slumlords.Woods was one of the coordinators of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and stood behind Martin Luther King, Jr. during his "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, delivered to a crowd of 250,000 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.