[2] In 1890, she was transferred to the Lukunga Mission Station in West Central Africa, where she founded a school with Clara Ann Howard,[6] a classmate who also graduated from Spelman in 1887.

[2] In 1893, she took a leave of absence and returned to the United States, taking two young African women with her to begin their studies at Spelman.

[8] In 1895, while in the US, she married Reverend Simeon Cunningham Gordon, a Jamaican who had attended Spurgeon's College in London.

[9] At Spelman, they were active in the "Congo Mission Circle" which prepared students for service in Africa.

[11] The contribution of Gordon, and other African American women after her, such as Louise Fleming and Clara Howard, was significant in both the United States and in Africa, "for the change they helped bring about in the lives of African women and children".