An Overall Perspective of the South: Nashville, a new book by local author Arthur Overall, III, paints a fascinating picture of one African American’s struggle to make it in the world of business as an entrepreneur. It gives rich insight into his family background, and how early experiences shaped his work ethic, and pointed him toward paths that led to success in both his personal and professional lives. This remarkable individual shares his story to both inspire and helpfully motivate today’s youth to work hard, find something they are passionate about, and keep moving forward toward their goals.
Growing up in the segregated south, with Nashville as his home, Overall never let obstacles remain stumbling blocks he turned them into stepping stones, and fought hard to find ways to live out the American Dream with his family, including a grandson who is a household name and a Super Bowl champion.
Arthur Overall, III a lifelong resident of Nashville, TN, attended Nashville public schools and earned his bachelors degree in Aeronautics from the school of Engineering at Tennessee State University. He worked in various jobs including GENESCO, Baird Ward Printing Company, Baptist Hospital. Prior to that, Arthur was drafted into the U.S. Army, and was sworn in on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Stationed in Mannheim, Germany, at the Coleman Barracks of the 8th Division, he made lifelong friendships and discoveries about himself.
A descendant of Cherokee, Irish, and African ancestors, Art says he is “Proud to be a native of Nashville and the South, home of country music and the Athens of the South; some choose to say ‘the Educational Center of the South’ and also home of the Parthenon!”
Having worked for the Xerox Corporation and Northern Telecom, his ambition was to own his own business. He created, owned and operated Music City Telecom, Inc. in the mid-eighties, the first independent company to install and own pay telephones in an international airport in America. His company supplied phones at the new Nashville International Airport, along with many other locations. Bear in mind, this was in a time when cellular phones were only available to a limited part of the population, well before iPhones and Trac Fones.
“In this book I start by talking about my uncle Robert who returned home (Nashville) in 1944-45 from World War II, and my roots,” says Overall. He begins with his immense fondness for golf, encounters with Ted Rhodes, Lee Elder, Tiger Woods, and his close childhood and lifelong friend, the late great Wilma Rudolph. He discusses his extended family’s experience on the Trail of Tears, along with the civil Rights era in Nashville. His story eventually touches on watching his grandson, Golden Tate, III perform at professional sports’ highest level, playing wide receiver for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in 2014.
For more about how to get a copy of this fascinating book, An Overall Perspective of the South: Nashville, email the author at aoveralliii@gmail.com
