Meet the Black pastor advocating for justice from East Atlanta to Palestine

Reverend Keyanna Jones is an East Atlanta native, an ordained minister, interfaith leader, wife and mother. She can also be a social justice activist and community organizer leading the movement in Atlanta against the city’s plans to construct a multimillion-dollar public safety training facility called “Cop City.”

Preaching from the pulpit, protesting in his hometown, and speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, Reverend Jones became a key voice in the quest for liberation. It also serves as a reminder of how interconnected our collective freedom is.

Jones, who’s an lively pastor at Park Avenue Baptist Church and a member of Community Movement Builders, has created a life rooted in service. After moving to New Jersey in her early 20s and living there for about 20 years, she returned to Atlanta to be along with her family.

While in New Jersey, she began working as an activist, particularly in the areas of kid care and education. Witnessing the systemic racism embedded in the education system, the unjust killings of Black people by police, and witnessing the growing presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in her neighborhood ignited her commitment to broader activism.

Upon her return to Atlanta, Jones not only brought her experience to the national fight for social justice, but in addition brought a lifelong love and concern for the city and its people. “These are my people,” he says. “This is where I come from. My grandma at all times taught me to fight and get up for individuals who haven’t got a voice. I grew up with the feeling of “if you see something wrong, say something.” I’m going to sound the alarm.

That’s exactly what Jones does. “For me, it’s never been a question of what my position is on ‘Cop City,’ because it’s just inappropriate,” he says. “It’s oppressive. Even if people believe in “law and order” and imagine we’d like police – there is no such thing as a need to construct an enormous facility to replace 381 acres of forest land and a significant watershed in the heart of super-black Southeast Atlanta. You don’t need to proceed to perpetuate these examples of environmental racism.”

The 381 acres of unincorporated land in Atlanta’s DeKalb County is a component of the area now often known as the South River Forest. It was previously home to the old Atlanta Prison Farm, which was once a slave plantation. Previously it was the Weelaunee forest of the Muscogee Creek people. The South River Forest is known as one in every of Atlanta’s “four lungs” — “which means we literally need these trees to breathe,” Jones says. “What kind of air do we breathe without these trees?”

Having someone like Jones on the front lines of this movement undermines the notion that black community members support the facility – something Jones explains is just not true. In the midst of anti-Cop City protests, police labeled those that vocally opposed the project “outside agitators,” promoting a narrative that Jones describes as familiar. He recalls moments in history, equivalent to the Civil Rights Movement, when those in power used this narrative to undermine organizers. “They called Dr. King an ‘outside agitator,'” he notes. “When you think about the carefully crafted narrative and how the mainstream media in Atlanta continues to drive it, you only see ‘out-of-state white people’ and that’s what they want to promote.”

He goes on to explain that the diversity of the “Stop Cop City” movement shouldn’t be neglected because it reflects the intersectionality of the human rights issues discussed. “Climate change is real,” he says. “There are people who joined this movement simply because they want to save trees. They think that trees are necessary. In addition to absorbing massive amounts of pollution, trees stop floods. The tree canopy is important because it mitigates global warming.”

However, Jones emphasizes that the impact of this example is and shall be lasting and more direct on children growing up in the area. The Atlanta Police Department’s shooting range, which had been in the area for years, influenced its decision to move to Decatur, a city near Atlanta, in May 2023.

“I have a 9-year-old that I homeschool, and the shots at the shooting range were just too strong for us,” he explains. “We had to move because it wasn’t something that was really conducive to a good learning environment for him.” She would love more people to appreciate her influence on children. “Those gunshots are loud at night,” he says. “Think about what it does to a child’s psyche if they feel safe.”

Although her work is essentially based on love for her hometown and its community, her activities transcend the borders of cities and countries. It recognizes the connections between militarized policing from Atlanta to Gaza and the importance of solidarity amongst oppressed communities around the world.

“The Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) is working with the Israeli military to train U.S. officers,” he says. “They trained Georgia State University police, Georgia State Patrol and Atlanta police. There are other police departments throughout the country that also train with the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF].

“Palestine is important,” he says, because the US imperialism that funds the Israeli military to attack Palestinians is “the same US imperialism that enables the police to terrorize black neighborhoods here in the United States.”

Reflecting on every part she does, Jones states that her husband, Jerrod, is an especially vital a part of her job. “When we talk about finding peace, it really is my husband,” she states. “Not only is he a huge supporter, but he really is that place of refuge and without him I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.”

For individuals who want to become involved in local liberation efforts, Jones suggests a two-fold approach. “Find out what you’re passionate about,” he says. “What really speaks to you, what makes you say, ‘I have to do something about this.’ Once you find that, find a community where people organize and are active around, because that’s where people learn too.”