The Reverend Richard R. Jones (1853 – 1921) was a noted African-American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and orator in Roanoke, Virginia.
After the Civil War, he went to West Virginia, he experienced a religious conversion and a call to preach.
An aggressive and passionate speaker, he worked with the congregation to raise funds for the church building and parsonage, and became its first pastor.
"Born a slave in 1853, Reverend Richard R. Jones came to Roanoke in 1882 to head First Baptist Church.
Forced out of his home in Roanoke, Virginia, he fled by train to Washington, DC, then to Homestead, Pennsylvania.