In spite of civil rights, voting rights, fair housing rights, affirmative action, and the plethora of other gains African-Americans have achieved over years of fighting for equality, stories of racial profiling and racism continue to be a challenge. It is also fair to acknowledge there remains continued agitating in that society to create what former President Barack Obama and others would call “a more perfect union.”
Many have worked their way to the top through determination, physical pain, injuries, ignoring the insults hurled at them or using these as motivation to reach the top. Such determination has made it impossible to ignore their achievements or create a desire to try to understand their successes- to know more about these achievers. One such story is the Williams sisters- Venus and Serena. Theirs is a story of children raised in the poor neighbourhood of Compton, California, to parents who planned their future whilst they were in the womb. Parents who were determined to make them the best tennis players the world has ever seen.
Richard, their father, tells the story of his own experience being raised in Louisiana and having to live the agony of having some white men hammering nails into his feet because he refused to call them “sir.” That experience did not stop or slow him in steering his daughters’ career to the pinnacle where the world could no longer ignore him and his family. Watch the documentary of the inspirational Williams girls, from childhood to winnings in adulthood, as they allowed the world a rare glimpse into their private lives.
