page_title: Nehemiah Atkinson
section_title: Tennis career
hierarchical_section_title: Nehemiah Atkinson / Tennis career
caption_attribution_description: English: The Atkinson - Stern Tennis Center is located at 3995 South Saratoga Street, New Orleans, Louisiana USA. It is a public facility operated by the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD).
context_page_description: Nehemiah Atkinson was a professional tennis player and tennis coach in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. He managed public tennis facilities in New Orleans and played competitive tennis into old age. He was particularly noted for teaching young African-Americans, especially the underprivileged, to play the sport of tennis.
context_section_description: In 1947, as part of his experience with the Dryades Street YMCA, Atkinson co-founded the New Orleans Hard Court Tennis Club, which provided opportunities for African-Americans to play competitive tennis in the segregated society of the time. This included organizing tennis tournaments, often taking place at Xavier University, a historically black university.
  In his early years of teaching tennis, due to limited resources, Atkinson sometimes used parking lots with a modified volleyball net instead of a tennis net as makeshift tennis courts. He taught youngsters the sport of tennis regardless of their ethnic background.
  Atkinson participated in many tournaments sponsored by the American Tennis Association, and he also supported them by doing volunteer work on behalf of the association. This was before the time that the United States Tennis Association accepted African-American players, while the American Tennis Association promoted African-American participation in the sport. As a player, Atkinson won various regional tennis tournaments throughout the southern United States, winning approximately 15 tournament titles.
  Following the 1974 relocation of the New Orleans Lawn Tennis Club, the former location became the Stern Tennis Center, a part of the New Orleans Recreation Department. This facility, on South Saratoga Street in New Orleans, welcomed African-Americans to play tennis. Atkinson became the manager of the facility, a position he held until his retirement in 1995. At the time of his retirement, Lloyd Dillon became manager of the facility, whom Atkinson has mentored for the position.
  Atkinson's notable tennis students included Chanda Rubin and Sharon Pettis, who later became the tennis coach at Marquette University. He also helped Pettis obtain a scholarship from the Southern University men's tennis team, an indication that he broke boundaries in both race and gender relations. Pettis later worked as a tennis instructor for the New Orleans Recreation Department as did Atkinson.
  Atkinson wrote a column for the Louisiana Weekly newspaper, with a readership of mostly African-American tennis players, entitled "Hard Court Tennis Notes".
caption: Atkinson - Stern Tennis Center in New Orleans
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