ATLANTA
Freddye Henderson, 89, let blacks travel en vogue
By
KAY POWELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/22/07 Freddye Henderson had an eye for a business opportunity as sharp as her eye for fashion.
It didn't take her but one trip to Europe in 1954 to figure out that there was a market to introduce African-American travelers to first-class treatment overseas.
In other words, in Europe they could ride in the front of the bus, Mrs. Henderson said in a 1987 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.
By 1955, she had opened Henderson Travel Service, the first black-owned travel agency in the Southeast and the nation's first fully accredited black-owned travel agency, designated by Black Enterprise magazine one of the nation's top 100 black-owned businesses.
"At first, people in Atlanta thought she was crazy," said her friend Tom Houck of Atlanta. "Here, they could not eat in a restaurant or stay in a hotel. Freddye was very strong in her efforts to have blacks get out and see more of the world."
Mrs. Henderson visited more than 100 countries, danced with dignitaries and met with monarchs. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. asked her not only to plan his trip to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize but to travel with him to Norway for the ceremony.
"She knew she was more than lucky but very blessed to be among Martin Luther King and world leaders," said Congressman John Lewis of Atlanta.
The funeral for Freddye Scarborough Henderson, 89, of Atlanta is 11 a.m. Wednesday at Ebenezer Baptist Church. She died of complications from a neurological disease Friday at Hospice Atlanta. Murray Bros. Cascade Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Henderson's first trip to Europe was at the invitation of the wife of French ambassador Henri Bonet to view the international press show of designer Christian Dior. Mrs. Henderson had earned a master's degree in fashion merchandising from New York University and was president of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers.
She expanded the trip to visit Switzerland and Italy, where she was greeted warmly. "I was treated first-class, like royalty," she said. "Blacks couldn't travel in this country with any ease. In Europe, blacks could ride in the front of the bus."
Rest of article: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...henderson.html
Soror Freddye Henderson, owner of nation's 1st black owned travel agency, dies
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