Rather than flying to South Carolina’s Gullah country (which my husband Weller and I did last fall) we decided to head south aboard a motor coach—and before you roll your eyes—this was not a leaf peeping tour with the parents, and certainly nothing like the bus trip I used to take to my grandmother’s house for summer visits back in the day.

This time I traveled in a state-of-the art motor coach equipped with a rest room, satellite television, Wi-Fi and electrical outlets for computers and cell phones.

The trip was arranged by Virgie Washington of VMW Guided Tours of Hampton, Virginia who has been conducting fully narrated trips focusing on Black heritage since 1997.

Despite years of accompanying her husband Bernard, a Lt. Colonel in the army, across the globe, Washington wasn’t ready to hang up her traveling shoes. Though the former teacher and husband Bernard are now retired and living in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, she’s utilized her organizational skills and love of history and people to develop a thriving tour business.

The tours quickly became popular with people who had traveled the world, but had never fully experienced different areas of the United States. These travelers, she believed, would enjoy the opportunity to actually see the country rather than fly over it at 30,000 feet.

Trips to see the Negro Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri or civil rights, jazz and blues trails in Memphis, New Orleans and Chicago sold out quickly.

“Our goal is to highlight and preserve ...