Richard Williams, the father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams, had a challenging childhood, to say the least. Growing up in the rampage of poverty with his single mother and ten siblings in Shreveport, Louisiana, Richard struggled for years before he found comfort. His father, who was a sharecropper, is reported to have left the family when Richard was just nine years old, leaving his single mother to raise the children alone. And Richard’s childhood was harder than most children experienced at the time. With poverty and distress came the struggle of violence, and growing up in resistance. In one such instance, Richard recounts how a gruesome act of violence spurred from something as trivial as calling someone “mister”.

Growing up in a rough neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, Richard witnessed gruesome violence and petty crime on a regular basis. However, that did not change him for the worse. It motivated him to do better, as it seems, and pull himself out of that environment. In the movie Venus and Serena (2012), Richard recalls one such incident and shows how it scarred him forever.

Serena Williams’ father, Richard, talks about a horrifying experience with a cool demeanor that rattles the audience

Showing around his childhood home, Richard takes the camera around his memories. Recalling the horrifying incident in question, Richard speaks with an eerie calmness.

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“A lot of things went wrong here,” he says, reminiscing about the episode.

“

Right here as well six or seven guys held me down and actually took a nail that goes in a crosstie,” says Richard pointing to a scar on his lower leg. “They nailed that sucker right into my leg. The reason they would do something like this is simply that I wouldn’t call them “mister”. I don’t think it was fair for me because no one “mister”-ed me. They always called me boy and n**ger, and always tried to kill me.”

The incident might have been a formative experience that taught Richard the importance of respect and standing up for oneself. Richard explained that he refused to call the older boys

“mister” because he felt that they did not respect him and used racial slurs to address him.

Richard’s upfront experiences with violence and discrimination would later inform his approach to coaching his daughters Venus and Serena, who went on to rule the tennis world despite being women of color.

WATCH THIS STORY –  ‘Serena Was a Prankster’ – Legendary Coach Rick Macci Reveals How Serena Williams as a Kid Was Different Than Venus Williams

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