Robert Walter Johnson (April 16, 1899 - June 28, 1971) was an American physician and founder of the American Tennis Association Junior Development Program for African-American youths, where he coached and fostered the careers of tennis greats, Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson.
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Biography
Johnson graduated in 1924 from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, a historically black college. He was a classmate of Melvin B. Tolson.
Johnson was the first African-American physician to receive practice rights at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia. Johnson continued his medical practice in Lynchburg for his entire career.
Known as the "godfather" of black tennis, Johnson founded an all-expenses-paid tennis camp for African-American children and hired instructors. In these years in the segregated South, they had no public courts where they could learn tennis, and many did not have money for lessons. Johnson was instrumental in encouraging the athletic careers of both Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, whom he personally coached.
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Legacy and honors
- Johnson was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1972.
- Johnson was nominated as a contributor in 2007 for the International Tennis Hall of Fame and would later be inducted with the Class of 2009.
- His home and training center, the Dr. Robert Walter Johnson House and Tennis Court, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
- The Walter Johnson Health Center, a large medical care and community health education center in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia, was named in his honor.
- The Dr. Robert Walter Johnson Memorial Invitational, Petersburg, Virginia
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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