Pioneering Agency Leads the Way in African-American Roots Travel

This is the second part of a series about how agents are pursuing the genealogical travel niche. (See: With Some Digging, Roots Travel Rewards Agents and Clients Alike)

Not only can Henderson Travel Service lay claim to being the oldest African-American-owned travel agency in the U.S., it has also long been at the forefront of roots travel to Africa.

It was in 1955, the same year that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, that Freddye Henderson, the mother of current owner Gaynelle Henderson Bailey, made history herself by opening the agency in Silver Springs. Md.

Impetus for Africa
After returning from leading a group of African-American fashion designers to Paris and impressed by how well they were received, Henderson convinced her husband to get into the travel business. Two years later they took a group to Ghana for its independence celebration.

“This was before commercial airlines were even flying there, so they had to charter a plane from Paris. The plane waited for a whole week to take them back to Paris,” said Henderson Bailey. “That was the impetus for us specializing in travel to Africa.”

Although it’s a full-service travel agency selling the full gamut of trips and destinations, Henderson Travel Service still specializes in trips and tours to Africa to cater to its mainly African-American clientele.

Inspired by Roots miniseries
Following a wave of interest in Africa after Alex Haley’s Roots miniseries first aired on television in 1977 – and became one of the most highly rated shows in television history – Henderson Bailey began a Roots Tour.

The tour took people to the village where Alex Haley traced his roots and also went to Gambia and Dakar, Senegal – places from where slaves were shipped out to the U.S. and the Caribbean. Her tours now visit the so-called “castles” or forts where the slaves were imprisoned before crossing the Atlantic.

“We realized over the years that that was an incredible niche to take African-Americans back to explore their roots. It caught on. And we began to put tours together to West Africa, then East Africa, South Africa and all over Africa,” Henderson Bailey said.

And her African business grew. What started with a single Roots Tour has grown to 10 to 15 tours per year. (The number was double that before the recession.) About 75% to 80% of the agency’s business is groups, with the rest FITs mainly to Africa and the Caribbean.

Although she creates the itineraries, Henderson Bailey usually relies on ground operators based in the destinations to carry them out and only has someone from her agency accompany the groups by special request.

Genealogical research challenges
She also encourages participants to do their own genealogical research beforehand. Unlike other ethnic groups who may be able to trace their ancestry back to the village they came from through their ancestors’ birth certificates, letters or obituaries in old ethnic U.S. newspapers, it’s not so easy for African-Americans – at least not until very recently.

“Slavery separated families, which makes it even more difficult for African-Americans,” said Henderson Bailey.

In spite of the fact that records of slave ancestors are scarce or hard to find, she noted that there’s a very modern way for African-Americans and others to find out where they came from.

“The only way you can find out where they came from for sure is to trace your ancestry through your DNA. A DNA analysis can tell which region and country you came from,” she said.

There are a growing number of companies that do DNA analysis, just one more tool that agents can suggest clients use in the search to discover their roots.

Tourism initiatives
In addition to helping individuals find their roots, Henderson Bailey has worked with nations to develop roots tourism to attract more visitors.

“We were hired to plan, market and manage a conference called the African Diaspora Heritage Trail,” she said. “It was a tourism initiative started by the minister of tourism in Bermuda. The purpose is to encourage people to explore their roots throughout the African diaspora and coordinate building a tourism trail in other countries.”

Since the original conference in 2002, there have been seven others in such places as Barbados, the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and Tanzania. They attract tourism officials, anthropologists, government leaders, heritage experts and students. These conferences have not only helped grow diaspora tourism, but are just another example of how Henderson Travel Service has worked to lay the foundation for African-Americans who want to travel to discover their roots.