Mary Jane Richardson Jones | |
|---|---|
 Jones c. 1865 | |
| Born | Mary Jane Richardson c. 1819 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | December 26, 1909 (aged 89–90) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Activist |
| Movement | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
Mary Jane Richardson Jones (c. 1819 – December 26, 1909) was an American abolitionist, philanthropist, and suffragist. Born in Tennessee to free African-American parents, Jones and her family moved to Illinois. With her husband, John, she was a leading African-American figure in the early history of Chicago. The Jones household was a stop on the Underground Railroad and a center of abolitionist activity in the pre-Civil War era, helping hundreds of fugitive slaves flee slavery.
After her husband's death in 1879, Jones continued to support African-American civil rights and advancement in Chicago, and became a suffragist. Jones was active in the women's club movement and mentored a new generation of younger black leaders, such as Fannie Barrier Williams and Ida B. Wells. Historian Wanda A. Hendricks has described her as a wealthy "aristocratic matriarch, presiding over the [city's] black elite for two decades."[1]