Fredericks, Brenda Ellis

Brenda Ellis Fredericks’ interest in Journalism and African American History began as a high school student in the Dallas Independent School District’s Program for the Talented and Gifted.  She spent a semester in 1975 working as an intern for R. E. “Buster” Haas, the Assistant Managing Editor of the Dallas Morning News. It was during this time she co-wrote a Page 1 article about the African American community of Dallas West.  While at the Morning News she had the opportunity to meet and interview notable African Americans Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali.  Mrs. Fredericks eventually had a 20 year career in Real Estate and Mortgage Lending in Southern California but picked up the pen again to write the Chicago Tribune in 2012 about her family’s discovery of ancestor and celebrated photographer, King Daniel Ganaway. According to Associate Managing Editor, Robin Dautridge, it was her writing skills that captured their attention which resulted in a Page 1 article published on October 26 of that same year. Mrs. Fredericks provided most of the supporting documentation collected over a 10 year period for the Tribune’s article that was picked up in newspapers throughout the country in the following weeks.