Richard Williams was a divorced father of six children when he met Oracene Price in 1979. Oracene already had three daughters of her own—Yetunde, Lyndrea, and Isha. Her first husband had died in 1979. When Oracene became pregnant, she and Richard were married. Their first daughter together, Venus Ebony Starr Williams, was born on June 17, 1980. Richard and Oracene briefly moved their family to Michigan, Oracene’s home state. While they lived there, their second daughter, Serena Jameka Williams, was born on September 26, 1981.
Soon after, Richard moved the whole family back to California, to a city south of Los Angeles called Compton.
One day, Richard, who ran a security guard company, got an amazing idea. He was watching a tennis tournament on TV. The winner received a check for a lot of money. Richard decided that his daughters could be tennis champions, too. He dedicated himself to learning all he could about the game and planned to coach his daughters to become superstar players.
He even wrote a book that outlined all that they would have to learn about tennis . . . and how he could teach them.
Richard first tried to get his stepdaughters into tennis, but they didn’t take to it like his youngest two daughters did. By the time Venus was four years old, she was hitting hundreds of tennis balls a day. Richard says that she would cry when he said it was time to stop. A year later, Serena joined her sister and took lessons from their father as well.
The courts where they played in Compton were cracked concrete. Weeds and grass often grew up in the cracks, and broken glass littered the corners. The tennis nets were held up with chains and rope.
The fence around the courts was rusty and broken in places. It was a far cry from the perfect courts at tennis or country clubs where many young people learned the game.
The neighborhood around the courts was not much better. Compton was a dangerous place. Many gang members lived there and often caused trouble. Occasionally, the girls heard gunfire near the courts.
“At first,” Serena wrote later, “I just thought someone was setting off firecrackers or popping some balloons, but once I learned what the sound meant, it would shake me up pretty good.”
Richard collected tennis balls he found near the courts or bought at garage sales. He filled several milk crates with balls and took them to the court for the girls. Sometimes he would roll the crates to the court in a shopping cart. He would do whatever it took to help Venus and Serena become better tennis players. Richard had said that he even lost some teeth fighting to keep the courts safe for the girls!
But as the little girls practiced and practiced, the court slowly became a safer place. Neighbors
remember young gang members even standing outside the courts to protect the girls and their dad while they practiced.
Oracene, who worked as a nurse, focused on the girls’ home life away from the tennis court. She inspired them to become part of her church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Jehovah’s Witnesses follow the Bible’s teachings very closely. They refer to God by the name “Jehovah.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses meet on Sundays and several other days of the week in buildings called Kingdom Halls, not churches. Members invite other people to their gatherings, by going door-to-door and distributing copies of pamphlets and their newspaper,
The Watchtower
.
The faith began in the late 1800s in Pennsylvania. Bible students led by a man named Charles Taze Russell put together the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They don’t vote in elections or celebrate holidays. They believe those things take away from their connection to Jesus.
All five of Oracene’s girls attended meetings at Kingdom Hall on Sundays and sometimes during the week as well. Venus and Serena put in the effort to do what their faith asked of them.
That included knocking on strangers’ doors together, telling people about their faith, and trying to convince them to join their congregation. “People slam doors on us,” says Serena, “but that’s their problem. We don’t take it personally.”
Their faith remains a big part of the Williams sisters’ lives.
