Port resident Bart Davis didn’t know what he was getting into when he teamed up with Richard Williams to write a book about Williams and his famous offspring, Venus and Serena.
Davis, a longtime author, was introduced to Williams by mutual friends and they immediately took to one another.
What resulted was a book that Davis says is as much about family and overcoming obstacles as it is about tennis. The book took two years to write and Davis calls the experience “a fascinating life story of beating poverty and racism, one of overcoming tremendous odds.”
Indeed, instead of a rendition of how the two women rose to worldwide glory, Davis entered a world rife with obstacles.
And in addition to chronicling the Williams sister’s rise to success, the book, Black And White–The Way I See It–“is very much a story about being a father, teaching his children the important values of life,” Davis said.
While it is commonly thought that tennis champions come from families of wealth that can support the year of hard training, Williams raised his girls in the slums of Compton, CA.
He saw something in them that made him drive them towards greatness. He had, in fact, decided the girls would play tennis two years before they were born, seeing professional tennis as a way out of poverty for his children. He even wrote a 78-page plan as a guide to how they were going to get there.
Succeeding was nearly impossible. It involved physical fights with gang members to free up the neighborhood tennis courts and even being shot at. It also involved Williams having to teach himself the game of tennis.
The girls not only persevered, but excelled. Between them, Venus and Serena have won 10 out of the last 12 ladies singles Wimbledon championships.
The book is unlike any of the other 15 written by Davis who has lived in Port for 34 years.
He has written 10 novels and co-authored five nonfiction, including Closure, the story of the rescue and recovery operation at Ground Zero; and The Woman Who Can’t Forget, about a woman who remembers every day of her life with complete autobiographical accuracy.
He also wrote The Midnight Partner, a murder mystery set in a town very much like Port Washington.
As for his latest book, about the Williams family, Davis says, “At this point in my life I only want to do things that have meaning and importance. This enabled me to stand up against racism, bullies and injustice.
His takeaway from the experience: “I learned the importance of defining oneself, and of succeeding against all odds.”
Black And White–The Way I See It will be out on May 6.
It has already been reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly, which called it “inspiring and tough minded … above all a celebration of one man’s resilient, unorthodox spirit.”
The book is also “a guide for every parent on raising successful children,” Davis said. “Williams often said, “If people come to me and say your girls are great tennis players, I have failed. I want them to say your girls are great people.”
