The Past, Present, and Future of the Nation’s First Black-Owned Travel Agency, Henderson Travel Service

Established in 1955, the origin story of Henderson Travel Service—both the first Black-owned full-service travel agency in the U.S. and a pioneer of Black American travel to Africa—is rooted in the determination and resilience of one woman: Freddye Henderson. She was intent on showing her fellow Black Americans what the world had to offer them, in spite of the many social ills—rampant racism and sexism, in particular—that sought to keep them out. More than 60 years after the agency’s landmark first trip to Ghana, held before commercial flights to Africa were even available from the U.S., HTS is still going strong—and it’s her daughter, Gaynelle, who has kept it at the vanguard.

Gaynelle was only eight years old when her mother founded HTS in Atlanta, but it didn’t take long before she started pulling her weight in the family business. Henderson vividly remembers her preteen years, when she and her older siblings would spend weekends in the office, filling out airline tickets by hand, while their mother worked on trip planning and their father handled the accounting. At 16, Gaynelle started guiding group tours on her own and continued doing so throughout her college years. It was a role she loved, but after graduation, Henderson decided to forge her own path.

“I remember consciously not wanting to be in the business,” she says. “For the longest time, I just wanted to do my own thing and wasn’t particularly interested in returning home.”

When Henderson’s career took her to Washington, D.C., however, she realized the internationally diverse city was the perfect market for an extension of HTS. She took money from her own savings, rented out a one-room office, and in 1984, Henderson Travel Service of Washington, D.C., was born, running alongside the Atlanta flagship.

Her timing, as it turned out, was perfect. In 1989, Henderson’s then-elderly parents were ready to shut down their Atlanta operations, leaving Henderson to take over their clients and continue the HTS brand. Leaning on her prior experience in management consulting, Henderson took the business a step further than her parents by expanding its offerings to include travel contracts for the U.S. government. For 20 years, Henderson managed two HTS divisions servicing government contracts, which brought in several million dollars on its own, as well as leisure travelers.

“That diversification contributed substantially to the longevity of HTS,” Henderson says. “There was no way we could have survived as a small travel agency through the end of commissions from airlines, the internet, people buying their own tickets, and eventually even being able to book their own tours online. It would've been difficult for us to survive at the level that we did.”

But in 2004, Henderson ended HTS’s government contracting work to focus on the leisure travel clients. And four years later, she decided it was time to return to the company’s beginnings entirely, and focus on what she really loved: planning group trips to Africa.

“That was the aspect of the business that really appealed to me,” Henderson says. “I’m passionate about taking people to Africa, exploring their roots and understanding the history of Africa.”

According to Naledi Khabo, CEO of the African Tourism Association, much of the shift in attitudes—not only towards Africa, but also in how Black travelers are viewed—is thanks to the work of HTS.

“We tend to talk about the Black travel movement as if it's a modern movement. There's no Black travel movement without Henderson Travel,” Khabo says. “They were taking Black professional associations, churches and affinity groups to connect with the continent long before the movement had a label. We are thankful for the foundation they laid, which has given rise to a deeper appreciation of the value of the Black traveler today.”

Though her mother managed to send clients all over the continent, there was one market that Henderson was able to open on her own: post-apartheid South Africa, which became the company’s most popular destination for several years.

Today, you’ll find Henderson semi-retired but still organizing at least five totally customized group trips to Africa every year. Most of her clients head to West African countries like Ghana and Senegal, where she says they have impactful experiences learning about the history of the Transatlantic slave trade and connecting with the people and cultures there.

“It's just such an eye-opening experience for [Black Americans], and they come back with more pride, often more connection to their heritage and history, and just excitement to share that and return with other family members or friends,” Henderson says.

Beyond planning meaningful trips for Black Americans, Henderson is also proud that her family’s business has always prioritized working with local, African-owned tour operators on the ground.

“It was very important to us to foster and help develop other Black businesses on the continent,” Henderson says. “In many cases, these were companies just getting started, but we gave them our business, and they were able to grow.”

Now, one of these business partners may be the future of HTS as Henderson takes steps to ensure the company lives on after she’s gone. Since the younger generations of her family have not shown interest in running the business, Henderson is partnering with Landtours Ghana Limited, an Accra-based operator, who will take over the day-to-day business operations, allowing her to lessen her involvement and simply be the face of the company, as well as the main initial contact, for as long as she pleases.

The two companies have worked together for about 15 years, with Landtours Executive Chair Mona Boyd describing Henderson as an adventurous, open-minded, and customer-centered colleague who has “helped to raise the profile of many African destinations.”

“As an African American woman, it means a great deal to me to have the opportunity to be part of carrying on the legacy of this iconic travel business,” Boyd says. “There are very few African Americans in the travel industry in America and it would be very sad, after over 60 years, if Henderson Travel no longer existed. […] I hope that Landtours’ technology driven back office will enable Gaynelle to keep her parents’ legacy alive for many generations to come.”

Henderson isn’t sure if or when she’ll ever fully retire, but in the meantime, she’s enjoying planning trips to Africa and encouraging other travel agencies to start or improve their offerings on the continent. More than anything, she hopes that continuing to tell the story of Henderson Travel Service will inspire others.

“We’ve managed to survive 66 years, two generations, and two different women running the agency all these years,” she says. “It’s been a wonderful experience.”