Mary Jane Richardson Jones (1819 – December 26, 1909) was an American
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
, philanthropist, and
suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
.
Born in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
to
free black parents, Jones and her family moved to
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
during her teenage years. Along with her husband,
John Jones, she was a leading
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
figure in the early
history of Chicago
Chicago has played a central role in American economic, cultural and political history. Since the 1850s Chicago has been one of the dominant metropolises in the Midwestern United States, and has been the largest city in the Midwest since the ...
. The Jones household was a stop on the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
and a center of abolitionist activity in the
pre-Civil War era, helping hundreds of fugitives fleeing slavery.
After her husband's death in 1879, Jones continued to support
African-American civil rights and
advancement in Chicago, and became a
suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
. Jones was active in the
women's club movement
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...
and mentored a new generation of younger black leaders, such as
Fannie Barrier Williams
Frances "Fannie" Barrier Williams (February 12, 1855 – March 4, 1944) was an African American educator, civil rights, and women's rights activist, and the first black woman to gain membership to the Chicago Woman's Club. She became well kno ...
and
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...
. The historian Wanda A. Hendricks has described her as a wealthy "aristocratic matriarch, presiding over the
ity'sblack elite for two decades."
Early life
Mary Jane Richardson was born in 1819 in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
, Tennessee.
Richardson was from a
free black family, the daughter of Elijah and Diza Richardson.
Her father was a blacksmith, and her mother was a homemaker.
Richardson was one of the middle children among nine born to the Richardsons between 1810 and 1845.
In their 1945 book ''They Seek A City'',
Arna Bontemps
Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.
Early life
Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole family. His a ...
and
Jack Conroy
John Wesley Conroy (December 5, 1899 - February 28, 1990) was a leftist American writer,"Jack Conroy." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 29 Oct. 2009, also known as a Worker-Writer,AP, . "Jack Conroy, Novelist, 91." ...
described Richardson as a light-skinned woman "whose queenly beauty became a legend in later years."
In the 1830s, Richardson moved with her family to
Alton
Alton may refer to:
People
*Alton (given name)
*Alton (surname)
Places Australia
*Alton National Park, Queensland
* Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne
Canada
* Alton, Ontario
*Alton, Nova Scotia
New Zealand
* Alton, New Zealand, ...
in
Madison County, Illinois.
As a teenager, she witnessed the riots in Alton surrounding the murder of
Elijah Parish Lovejoy
Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. Following his murder by a mob, he became a martyr to the abolitionist cause opposing slavery ...
, an anti-slavery newspaperman. Lovejoy's funeral passed by Richardson's father's house, an event which she "vividly" remembered years later.
Marriage and move to Chicago
![John and Mary Jones in the 1840s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/John_and_Mary_Jones_in_the_1840s.jpg)
In 1841, Richardson married
John Jones, taking his surname. He was a free black man originally from North Carolina. Jones had first met him in Tennessee and he moved to Alton to woo her.
Their daughter Lavinia was born in 1843.
The couple, ever mindful that their status as free could be called into question, secured fresh copies of freedmen's papers before an Alton court on November 28, 1844.
The young family moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
in March 1845, eight years after the city's incorporation.
Committed abolitionists, they were drawn by Chicago's large anti-slavery movement.
On the journey, they were suspected of being
runaway slaves
In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...
and detained, but were freed on the appeal of their stagecoach driver.
The couple arrived in the city with only $3.50 (equivalent to approximately $ in ) to their name, pawning a watch to afford rent and the purchase of two stoves. A black grocer, O. G. Hanson, gave the Joneses $2 in credit (equivalent to approximately $ in ).
John Jones's tailoring business succeeded and by 1850, they were able to afford their own home.
Although both were illiterate when they arrived in the city, they quickly taught themselves to read and write, viewing it as key to empowerment—John wrote that "reading makes a free man".
Antebellum life in Chicago
The Joneses became members of a small community of African-Americans in Chicago, comprising 140 people at the time of their arrival.
Along with three other women, Jones became a leader in the
African Methodist Episcopal
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...
church based at
Quinn Chapel, and developed it into a well-trafficked stop on the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
.
The Joneses joined the
Liberty Party and made their family home Chicago's second stop on the Underground Railroad.
While John's tailoring business prospered, Jones managed their home as a center of black activism, organizing resistance to the
Black Codes and other restrictive laws like the
Fugitive Slave Act
A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also kno ...
.
Their friends included prominent
abolitionists
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
such as
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
, who introduced them to
John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
.
Brown and his associates, described by Jones as "the roughest looking men I ever saw", stayed with the Joneses on their way east to their
raid on Harpers Ferry. Jones provided new clothes for the radicals, including, as she recalled in an account given years later, the garb Brown
was hanged in six months later.
The Joneses were not militant, despite their anti-slavery views, and did not support Brown's plan for a violent slave uprising.
Together with her husband, Jones assisted hundreds of enslaved people fleeing north to Canada at a time when such actions were illegal, standing guard at the door during meetings of abolitionists.
Writing in 1905, their daughter Lavinia Jones Lee recalled her mother personally loading fugitives onto trains north at the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (G&CU) was a railroad running west from Chicago to Freeport, Illinois, never reaching Galena, Illinois. A later route went to Clinton, Iowa. Incorporated in 1836, the G&CU became the first railroad built out ...
station on Sherman Street while
slave catcher
In the United States a slave catcher was a person employed to track down and return escaped slaves to their enslavers. The first slave catchers in the Americas were active in European colonies in the West Indies during the sixteenth century. I ...
s watched, kept away by a restless anti-slavery crowd.
Jones kept track of those she had assisted, writing letters to many former fugitives and forming a network of aid centered on her and John.
![Cabinet Photograph of Mary Richardson Jones 1883](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Cabinet_Photograph_of_Mary_Richardson_Jones_1883.jpg)
In 1861, the Joneses helped found
Olivet Baptist Church, which contained the first library open to black Chicagoans.
Jones, along with three other women, established an aid group called Workers for the King through the church in 1871.
During the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
in 1861, Jones recruited for the
United States Colored Troops
The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units. They were first recruited during ...
. Along with fellow activists like
Sattira Douglas, she led the founding of the
Chicago Colored Ladies Freeman's Aid Society, which allocated direct aid to former slaves as well as providing a forum for political action.
Later life – continued activism
Jones, described by the historian Richard Junger as a woman of strong "convictions and abilities", continued to advocate for
integration and civil rights after the war ended. In 1867,
Theodore Tilton
Theodore Tilton (October 2, 1835 – May 29, 1907) was an American newspaper editor, poet and abolitionist. He was born in New York City to Silas Tilton and Eusebia Tilton (same surname). On his twentieth birthday, October 2, 1855, he married ...
, a New York journalist, planned a visit to
Crosby's Opera House
Crosby's Opera House (1865–1871) was an opera house in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was founded by Uranus H. Crosby in 1865 with the goal of advancing the arts in Chicago by bringing opera to the city. The five-story building was design ...
in Chicago to give a lecture. Jones wrote to warn him that the audience was to be
segregated. Upset by this disclosure, Tilton successfully pressed the Opera House to integrate its seating for his talk and presented tickets to Jones, reading the letter she had written to him to the audience.
In 1871, John was elected as a
Cook County Commissioner
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...
, the first African-American to be elected to public office in Illinois. The same year, the
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
destroyed both the Jones family home and John's four-story tailoring business, together valued at $85,000 (equivalent to approximately $ in ). The family was able to rebuild, building a new house near
Prairie Avenue
Prairie Avenue is a north–south street on the South Side of Chicago, which historically extended from 16th Street in the Near South Side to the city's southern limits and beyond. The street has a rich history from its origins as a major trail ...
.
John's tailoring business was also restarted at a new location; he continued to work until retiring in 1873.
Widowhood
Following John's death from
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied b ...
on May 27, 1879,
Jones became independently wealthy.
Her husband's estate was valued at over $70,000 (equivalent to approximately $ in ); he had been one of the city's richest men.
John's tailoring business was taken over by
Lloyd Garrison Wheeler
Lloyd Garrison Wheeler, Sr. (1848-1909) was an African-American attorney, businessman, philanthropist, and political leader. Wheeler was the first black American to practice law in the state of Illinois and was influential in the establishment of ...
, a family friend.
Moving to 29th Street, Jones's stately new home reflected her "economic status and social prominence" in the city, according to the historian
Christopher Robert Reed
Christopher Robert Reed (born January 11, 1942) is an American historian known for his expertise on the African American experience in twentieth century Chicago, Illinois. Reed was assistant professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois ...
; he adds that she was considered the center of black society in Chicago until the 1890s.
Junger has written that Jones was considered the most prominent of the "old guard" African-American community that had arrived in the city before the Great Fire of 1871.
The historian
Wanda A. Hendricks has described her as a wealthy "aristocratic matriarch, presiding over the
ity'sblack elite for two decades."
Supporting younger activists
Jones dedicated her fortune to philanthropy and activism.
She contributed significantly to
Hull House
Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...
and the
Phillis Wheatley Club
The Phillis Wheatley Clubs (also Phyllis Wheatley Club) are women's clubs created by African Americans starting in the late 1800s. The first club was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895. Some clubs are still active. The purpose of Phillis W ...
in Chicago. Her financial support enabled the founding of the
Wheatley Home for Girls, which supported newly arrived migrants from rural areas, in 1908.
Jones was not quick to become a suffragist, arguing that prominent African-American women such as
Edmonia Lewis
Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907), was an American sculptor, of mixed African-American and Native American ( Mississauga Ojibwe) heritage. Born free in Upstate New York, she worked for most of ...
had not pushed for suffrage, and saying that "her idea of woman suffrage" was that "a woman should do all she could do".
Once she decided to support the cause of women's voting, Jones hosted
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...
,
Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt (; January 9, 1859 Fowler, p. 3 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt ...
, and others at her home for meetings.
Jones also supported younger black Chicagoans like
Daniel Hale Williams
Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1856 – August 4, 1931) was an African-American surgeon, who in 1893 performed what is referred to as "the first successful heart surgery". It was performed at Chicago's Provident Hospital, which he founded in ...
. She provided Hale Williams with lodgings at her home and funded his medical education in exchange for help with household tasks.
When he established his own medical practice, Jones was one of his earliest patients.
Later, in 1891, when he founded
Provident Hospital as a non-segregated institution, she made a substantial philanthropic contribution.
![Graves of John Jones (1817–1879) and Mary Jane Richardson Jones (1819–1909) at Graceland Cemetery 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Graves_of_John_Jones_%281817%E2%80%931879%29_and_Mary_Jane_Richardson_Jones_%281819%E2%80%931909%29_at_Graceland_Cemetery_2.jpg)
Emphasizing
moral and social improvement, Jones told a ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' reporter writing an 1888 story on "Cultured Negro Ladies" that "we want more justice to women and more virtue among men".
Active in the
women's club movement
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...
, Jones was the first chair of
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...
's new club in 1894, recruiting for the organization and lending it her prestige.
Along with
Fannie Barrier Williams
Frances "Fannie" Barrier Williams (February 12, 1855 – March 4, 1944) was an African American educator, civil rights, and women's rights activist, and the first black woman to gain membership to the Chicago Woman's Club. She became well kno ...
, Jones ran the women's section of the
Prudence Crandall
Prudence Crandall (September 3, 1803 – January 27, 1890) was an American schoolteacher and activist. She ran the first school for black girls ("young Ladies and little Misses of color") in the United States, located in Canterbury, Connecticut.
...
Literary Club, a prominent forum for black activism and feminism in Chicago.
She mentored a new generation of leaders among black women, including Barrier Williams, Wells, and
Elizabeth Lindsay Davis
Elizabeth Lindsay Davis (1855-1944) was an African-American teacher and activist. She was responsible for forming the Phyllis Wheatley Women's Club in Chicago, Illinois in 1900. Over the course of her life, she participated and contributed to th ...
.
Jones died on December 26, 1909, according to Junger.
At her death, ''
The Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...
'' reported that, "loved and admired by everyone," Jones had "reached the ripe age of 89 years with the full possession of all her faculties."
She is buried alongside her husband at Chicago's
Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is a large historic garden cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Ir ...
, under a tombstone which reads "Grandma Jonesie".
A
Chicago park was named in her honor in 2005.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson Jones, Mary Jane
20th-century African-American people
1819 births
African-American abolitionists
African-American suffragists
American suffragists
Activists from Chicago
People from Memphis, Tennessee
Burials at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago)
1909 deaths
20th-century African-American women
19th-century African-American women
Underground Railroad people