Brigette Jones
Brigette Janea Jones is the Assistant Executive Director for Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance in Lithonia, Georgia, and founder of Bridge Builders Historical Consulting, LLC. Her previous work has included the preservation and interpretation of the vast social histories of the many diverse cultures that inhabit the state of Tennessee, including, but not limited to, African American history, Latino history, Native American history, and Middle Eastern history, as well as fostering the types of partnerships with community institutions that will aid in the enhancement of their quality of life. Jones is a Memphis native and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the historically Black Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2019, she gained certification through the National Association for Interpretation and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to become an official interpreter of the African American experience.
Most recently, she served as Director of Equitable Partnerships for Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery and Curator of Social History for the Tennessee State Museum, where her work blended the academic study of the lasting legacy of American chattel enslavement on Tennessee and surrounding areas and the need for reparative action as it relates to American Descendants of Chattel Enslavement. She joins with her new book with coauthor Jeff Dingler, Images of America: Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area.
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Brigette Jones
Images of America: Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area
Using the heritage area’s archival images and photographs sourced from partners and the community, Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area is a photographic tour through time and place on the nature, culture, and history of southeast Metro Atlanta.
Beginning 20 miles east of Atlanta, the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area encompasses portions of DeKalb, Henry, and Rockdale Counties, with Arabia Mountain and its lunar-like landscape and the historic city of Lithonia at its heart. Dominated by two granite mountains, Arabia and Panola, the area once contained the nation’s biggest rock quarrying and chicken grit operations. Over time, these businesses, along with agrarian industries, would weave a uniquely diverse cultural tapestry that centered on family, faith, and fortitude. Some of these stories include civil rights heroes from Lithonia like Lucious Sanders and Marcia Glenn Hunter, Trappist monks in Conyers who marched with Dr. King, quarry workers at Arabia who helped build DeKalb’s first public school for Blacks, and a landscape architect who worked at the White House and helped preserve Panola Mountain.
