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.

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.

[3] In their 1945 book They Seek A City, Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy described Richardson as a light-skinned woman "whose queenly beauty became a legend in later years.

[2] 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.

[10] Along with three other women, Jones became a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal church based at Quinn Chapel, and developed it into a well-trafficked stop on the Underground Railroad.

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.

[1][2] Writing in 1905, their daughter Lavinia Jones Lee recalled her mother personally loading fugitives onto trains north at the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad station on Sherman Street while slave catchers watched, kept away by a restless anti-slavery crowd.

[15] Jones, described by historian Richard Junger as a woman of strong "convictions and abilities", continued to advocate for integration and civil rights after the war ended.

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.

[16] The same year, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed both the Jones family's home and John's four-story tailoring business, together valued at $85,000 (equivalent to $2.2 million in 2023[12]).

The family built a new house near Prairie Avenue, while John's tailoring business was also restarted at a new location; he continued to work until retiring in 1873.

[4] 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;[19] he adds that she was considered the center of black society in Chicago until the 1890s.

[2][10] Emphasizing moral and social improvement, Jones told a Chicago Tribune reporter writing an 1888 story on "Cultured Negro Ladies" that "we want more justice to women and more virtue among men".

[1][5] Along with Fannie Barrier Williams, Jones ran the women's section of the Prudence Crandall Literary Club, a prominent forum for black activism and feminism in Chicago.

[4][b] At her death, The Chicago Defender reported that, "loved and admired by everyone," Jones had "reached the ripe age of 89 years with the full possession of all her faculties.