Dr. Robert Walter Johnson is up first, a physician from Virginia who also did the occasional dabbling in tennis instruction (that was understatement, in case it wasn't clear). In fact, he is known as the "Godfather of Black Tennis"; he helped sire the careers of Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson, among many, many others. He also maintained a medical practice in Lynchburg, VA, alongside his coaching career - much like Dr. Reginald Weir, Dr. Johnson never stopped practicing medicine while he continued his involvement in tennis. He ran a junior training program for the ATA on personal courts that he owned in his Lynchburg home - it is there that Ashe, Gibson, and the other numerous students honed their craft. Dr. Johnson is an inductee of both the Black Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Tennis Hall of Fame, proving that his contributions did not go unnoticed in both the black community and the tennis community at large. He passed away in 1971, but not before inspiring thousands of black people to pick up their rackets and try their hands at the beautiful game.
John Wilkerson is up next. I mentioned this in Lori McNeil's writeup, but if doing this project has taught me anything, it's shown me that his coaching efforts are tremendously underrated - he took two black girls from the public courts of Houston, TX to the world's top 10, which is a remarkable feat. Why is he not celebrated more?! Wilkerson became involved in tennis at age 16, when he decided to play tennis for the first time and immediately became a natural at the game; with no formal tennis training, he won state titles in singles and doubles in high school, and seemed poised to become a great tennis player; however, after some soul searching, he eventually joined the Army. After his enlisting in the service, he finished college and became the head coach at the MacGregor Park tennis program; it is there that he helped to coach Garrison and McNeil to the top ranks of the world. None of his other proteges achieved nearly the same success, but Wilkerson has continued his involvement in tennis; in fact, he is currently one of the directors at Zina Garrison's tennis academy in Houston. I think that this man's efforts have been tremendously overlooked, as I stated before, and I hope that one day he truly gets his due.
Robert Screen is the next person on our list; he is the most successful black tennis coach among the many that have served. He was the head coach at Hampton University from 1970 until 2011, this after serving as an assistant coach at Hampton since 1953. As Hampton's head coach, he compiled more than a thousand wins as head coach, including two national Division II titles, in 1976 and 1979. He also served as a professor at the university, in which he helped to establish the school's first ever speech pathology program. Overall, Screen's legacy as a collegiate coach ranks him among the most successful black coaches to ever teach the game; his dedication to succeeding at the college level ranks among the best collegiate tennis coaches of all time.
I've already spotlighted a few terribly successful coaches, but Richard and Oracene are the reason you're REALLY here, right? They've actually been divorced since 2002; Oracene is now known by her maiden name of Oracene Price. But they are the parents and first coaches of the two most successful black tennis players of all time - Venus and Serena Williams. THERE. That is the FIRST time I've mentioned them by name in 26 posts - happy?!?! I'll get into the reasons why I've been so cagey about mentioning them tomorrow, but their first and primary coaches were their parents (with a special shoutout to Rick Macci). Richard Williams is usually cited as the dominant influence; indeed, he was the first of the two parents to fall in love with tennis. He learned the game from a man named "Old Whiskey," whom he traded lessons from in exchange of pints of booze (true story!). He decided that his future children should be tennis players, and after marrying Oracene (both parents were on their second marriage at this point), he trained the two children they had together in the sport of tennis. He believed so much that they would be champions, in fact, that he pulled them out of the junior tennis scene and had them both turn professional at very early ages; this is obviously one of the rare times in which such a decision proved to be mightily prescient. Oracene usually gets overlooked when it comes to the coaching aspects; it was Richard who decided the girls should play tennis, but it has been Oracene who is credited for keeping them focused on the game; in fact, in a 2008 article I found from tennis.com, Serena actually refers to Oracene as the "bad cop" in the proverbial "good cop, bad cop" role; she says that Oracene is the likelier of the two parents to criticize the girls and give them an accurate criticism when they are playing bad. Regardless of the exact circumstances of how they picked up the game, however, the tennis record books would be terribly different had these two not decided that their girls could both be the greatest tennis champions of the world. That they have done, and so much more.
And on that note, considering that I could not end with a more perfect segue, I will finally spill my thoughts on the two greatest black champions that ever lived, starting tomorrow!
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