John Arthur Butt turned his passion for landscaping into a successful business.
By Alexis Taylor, The Afro, Word In Black
Photo, This National Black Business Month, AFRO Managing Editor Alexis Taylor (left) speaks on the first Black business owner she ever met, her grandfather, John Arthur Butts (right). Courtesy photos.
When I think of the power of Black business ownership, I think of the first entrepreneur I met in life: one of my grandfathers, John Arthur “AB” Butts.
Born to the late William and Courtney Butts on Nov. 28, 1943, my grandfather was a hard working man from Norfolk, Va. – a man’s man, with a big heart. Our paths first began to intertwine when he and his wife, a teacher, snatched one of her 14-year-old science students out of the Virginia foster care system. Together, they stood in the gap and created a family for not only the young lady who would later become my mother, but all of her children as well.
As a father to three and grandfather to many, my “grandaddy” was the definition of grit and determination. And he never missed a beat. He made no excuses– even when the going got tough.
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