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-Today, whites have every hour
on television available to them.

The Blacks have none.

♪♪

-The following program
is brought to you

in living color on NBC.

♪♪

-This is an ABC
color presentation.

♪♪

-CBS presents this program
in color.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Static ]

♪♪

-This is NET,
the public television network.

♪♪

-♪ Yeah, baby ♪

[ Applause ]

♪ Oh ♪

♪♪

-♪ I'm so tired of being alone,
I'm so tired of on my own ♪

♪ Won't you help me, girl ♪

♪ Soon as you can? ♪

♪ Sometimes I wonder ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ If you love me
like you say you do ♪

♪ I-I-I-I been thinking
about it, yeah ♪

♪ And I've been trying,
next to you ♪

♪ Sometimes have to
fold my arms, and I say ♪

♪ I love you, baby, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Come on in, baby ♪

♪ You're everything to me ♪

♪ You're everything
to me ♪

♪ Everything to me ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, hey ♪

♪♪

[ Applause ]

[ Applause distorts ]

♪♪

-All of you know that
your tax dollar and mine

is helping to pay for
the maintaining of segregation.

This money's given to keep you
and I

second-class citizens
here in this great country.

-Although we are not
integrationists,

that doesn't mean that we
in any way condone

what those crackers are doing
in Birmingham, Alabama.

It was only after the Negroes
began to strike back.

It was then that Kennedy
called in the army.

-♪ Everything's all right ♪
-Now, now, now, now.

-We had a richness
of Black voices

speaking to the problems
of our time.

-This is the fruit of what
Martin Luther King

and the protest movement
had done.

They had awakened a generation.

-If you don't want any trouble,

keep your filthy white hands off
our beautiful Black children.

-♪ If I don't rise
in the morning ♪

-It just seemed that this was
not just foolish racists,

that this was
some kind of attack.

You gonna kill the president
of the United States.

You gonna kill Malcolm X.

They killed Bobby Kennedy,

and they killed Martin
Luther King.

So that whole period
was an assault

on any kind of progressive
face of America.

-We are determined
to raise our people

to their traditional greatness.

The Black community
is very conscious

of how it is being oppressed,
and it means to change that.

-We needed to
reimagine ourselves

on this American landscape.

-♪ Everything's all
right, yeah ♪

-Somebody had to be first...

♪♪

and it was Ellis Haizlip.

-♪ Ooh ♪
-"SOUL!" offers Black performers

a chance to be meaningful,
to be relevant

to the Black experience,
to say,

"Just present me
as a man or a woman

without
justifying my Blackness."

-♪ Yes ♪

-Ellis, to me, was, like,
the first citizen of New York

in that New York
was absolutely his city.

-I met Ellis in New York
in the summer of '64,

and we became friends.

He was doing real art.

He was producing dance.

He knew Donnie McKayle.

-And that's where
I got to know him,

and through "Black New World,"
touring Europe.

-He knew Alvin Ailey.

He was producing James Baldwin's
plays in Europe.

I knew that television had
a place for his thinking

and his artistry.

I got the Boston station,
and I got the Pittsburgh station

and the New York station
to do an interconnect

called "Talking Black"
on art in the Black communities.

So by now,
Ellis had done two shows,

and I think he was really primed
to do something big.

-From the Ed Sullivan
Theater on Broadway...

-Ellis came at a time
when there were

so few African-American images
on television

and certainly so few positive

African-American images
on television.

-I'm a Negro.
-You always been a Negro,

or are you just trying
to be fashionable?

-When Black folks appeared
in the news,

it was as a problem.

-Violent crime rate is up 71%.

-Media had been weaponized
to argue

for the inhumanity
of African-Americans.

-If you sit here in the central
ward of Newark

in the Negro ghetto...

-This tool was used
from its very inception

to denigrate human life
as much as it could liberate it.

-By then, there was
an occasional

mainstream breakthrough,

when people like Nat King Cole
and Harry Belafonte

were given variety shows
on national television,

but they didn't last very long.

Harry Belafonte would dance
with a white actress on-screen,

and the people in the South
would go crazy.

And so they dropped the show.

-The period was filled
with great upheaval.

It was an upheaval
that was necessary.

-Cities across the country
were erupting.

There were riots in Los Angeles,
in Detroit, in Newark.

There were riots popping up
all over the place.

-There was a commission
that was impaneled --

the Kerner Commission --

to investigate why
this uprising had happened.

-The Kerner Commission Report
in March of '68 said,

"We are drifting towards
two nations,

one Black and one white,

and the media is largely
responsible for this."

-One of the findings
of the Kerner Commission

was the sense
that African-Americans,

Black people,
had no voice in broad media.

That led to the impetus to say,
"Why don't we use educational TV

to make sure that those voices

that had not had access
could present their stories,

specifically African-Americans?"

-Produced in New York by WNDT.

-A number of programs

were created
for public television.

"Black Journal,"
which was a program

that came out of New York;
it was a documentary program.

There were programs like
"Say Brother"

that came out of WGBH in Boston.

-Shows like "Like It Is"
were public-affair shows.

-Hello, I'm Jim Lowry.
-And I'm Roxie Roker.

-Welcome to
"Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant."

-Public television,
which had been

called educational television,

was less comfortable
with live performance

as a way of serving its public

the way that educational TV
imagined service

and also imagined its public.

-This is NET, the National
Educational Television Network.

-Even though I had known this,
I said,

"We don't have a single person
of color on our staff

producing anything.

We gotta do something
about that."

When I realized that Ellis
was beginning to like television

and understood how it could get
his message across,

I said, "Look, what do we see
on television?

We see riots.
We see poverty.

We see cameras
going through Harlem,

showing how the garbage
isn't picked up.

I don't hear that from you.
What I hear is how lively

the renaissance
of the arts are

in Black communities
around the country."

-Ellis wanted to legitimate
all of the variety of expression

in the arts, in particular
in the Black community,

and that's not
"The Tonight Show" --

or, you know,
that's not the format.

-I think I came up
with the idea

of a Black "Tonight Show"
on my own

before I even talked to Ellis,
and Ellis said, "Unh-unh.

If we're gonna do something

for the New York
Black community,

it's gotta be a lot deeper,

jazzier,
even more controversial."

-Black power!
-We want Black power.

-Black power!
-We want Black power.

-So we wrote up a proposal
for the Ford Foundation,

and we got money very quickly.

Ellis said, "What are we
gonna call this show?"

I said, "Got any ideas, fellas?"

He said, "What about 'Soul'?"

I said, "Yeah, if you put
an exclamation point after it."

-I never forget
when the show started

and he'd strike up the band.

It's just "Wow," you know,

"Live and in color,
the SOUL! show."

♪♪

-Live and in color from
New York City,

"SOUL!" welcomes...

-And now, the very first
musical performance of our show,

Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx,
Patricia Holte,

also known as Patti LaBelle
and the Bluebelles.

♪ Somewhere over ♪

♪ The rainbow ♪

♪ Way, way ♪

♪ Up high ♪

-I mean, look at the first show.

Essentially, we got stars
and future stars.

Patti LaBelle
and the Bluebelles,

yes, they'd been around,

but not on television.

-♪ Why ♪

♪ Oh, why ♪

♪ Can't ♪

♪♪

♪ I? ♪

♪ Oh, why, why? ♪

-The first show was -- it was --
I don't know how to explain it.

The air was electric.

-♪ Let me tell you one and all ♪

-We were all very excited

because we knew it was
something new and special.

-The very first show starts,
and Novella Nelson's face

is the face
of the introductory sequence.

-♪ To this hole in the wall ♪

-Ellis would bring in people who
he had seen or heard or knew.

Novella Nelson, who had
never been on television.

-♪ It would be heaven for
a cat ♪

♪ Of cold water flat ♪

[ Applause ]

-And then there was
Billy Taylor,

who was known in the jazz world
but not in the television world.

-We were so excited
about someone who at last

was beginning to do something
that really wasn't done

often enough for us
on radio and television

and helping people understand
what Black music was about.

Ellis did that very well.

-And the moment that went
on that television,

it went boom, you know?

"We bad.
Ain't we bad?"

Yeah, you walked down --
you walked down the street,

and you were dripping
badness, you know?

-Very quickly, the word
got out about this show.

Just seemed to spread like
lightning across the country

that there was this true
Black show,

true to the Black experience;
no subjects were taboo,

provided you could put them
in decent language;

and that it was our show.

-With this Black priority,

we don't have to become
a multipurpose program.

Black people turn us
on every week

because they know they will see

an undiluted Black show.

-Dr. Poussaint was the
psychiatrist from Boston

we had brought in
to host the show.

Alvin Poussaint was a very,
very bright,

accomplished professor
at Harvard.

-Ellis asked me
if I would be host.

I mean, I wasn't in
show business,

but the show would open,

and I had to walk out like
I was doing "The Tonight Show."

-Well, we had a co-host,
Loretta Long.

-I'd done a few commercials,

but television
was never an option for me

'cause I didn't wanna be Beulah.

I didn't wanna be a maid.

-"The Beulah Show."

-Don't let nobody tell you that
I'm in the market for a husband.

'Course, I would be,
but they don't sell husbands

in the market.

-"SOUL!" gave me
this wonderful opportunity

of being on television.

I think Dr. Poussaint
was even more nervous

than -- than I was.

-I think he did three shows,
and then we asked him

as politely
as we could to step down.

Who are we gonna find?
So Ellis had a cousin, Harold,

who was the head
of a school in New York.

-I was the headmaster
of the New Lincoln School,

a private, pre-kindergarten
through 12 school.

Ellis said he wanted me
to do the show.

So I was moving along
in my day job,

often dressed with my blazer
and sometimes a bowtie,

and then when it was time
to do the show,

my hair came out a bit
with my blow comb.

It came out -- looked like
Moses, sort of.

You know, hair out to here and
around, down to my shoulders,

shirt open, chains,
polyester suits, heels,

tiptoeing out of our
West End Avenue apartment,

going to do this show
down at Channel 13.

And I thought, "My God, what if
one of my board members see" --

I -- my nightmare was,
some little smart-ass kid

would walk up to me and say,
"Is that you, Dr. Haizlip?"

-Harold was good,
but at the end of two weeks,

he was gone.

And I said to Ellis,
"Are you interviewing people?"

He said, "I'm gonna do it."
-I'm Ellis Haizlip.

I'm Ellis Haizlip.
Good evening.

I'm Ellis Haizlip,
the producer of "SOUL!"

I'm Ellis Haizlip,

and we are happy to have you
with us this evening.

-Ladies and gentlemen,
our special guest host

for you tonight is also
the co-producer of "SOUL!",

Ellis Haizlip.

-I said, "Ellis,
you're not an interviewer.

You're not a journalist.

I love you,
but this isn't your thing.

-Hello, and thank you.
And welcome to "SOUL!"

We're doing our first
live show tonight,

and, you know, we hope
you'll kinda bear with us.

We can go up, or we can go down,
but we hope it runs evenly.

Tonight...
-And there was Ellis,

about as bad an interviewer
as you can possibly imagine.

His strongest comment would be,
"Right on,"

which hosts
aren't supposed to do.

-What are they gonna
do for us now?

-The poets are gonna do now

a piece they call
"Die Nigga!!!"

-Right.

All right.
Very good.

So we have the Black --
the Last Poets now doing

"Die Nigga!!!"

-They're doing "Waking Waters."

-Aww. First goof on
live television.

It's "Waking Waters."
-And we didn't even do it.

-Yeah, we didn't do it.

-That's me, co-producer.
First goof.

"Waking Waters."
The Last Poets.

-Ellis was a producer,
impresario.

For him to articulate
his vision,

he had to be the host of
the show.

-We are as proud of
our militants

as we are
of the religious element,

and the "SOUL!" show will
reflect that pride.

-The Last Poets are gonna do
a piece for us now,

and I can only beg
that everyone can accept it

in the spirit
that it's delivered.

It's called, "Die Nigga!!!"

The Last Poets
and "Die Nigga!!!"

-♪ Niggas watched
Medgar Evers die ♪

♪ Niggas watched
Emmett Till die ♪

♪ Niggas watched
Bobby Hutton die ♪

♪ Niggas watched
James Chaney die ♪

♪ Niggas watch niggas die! ♪
-♪ Die! Die! Die! ♪

-♪ Niggas, niggas, niggas ♪
-♪ Die! Die! Die! ♪

-♪ Niggas die! Niggas die! ♪
-♪ Die! Die, die, die ♪

-♪ Die, niggas! ♪

♪ So Black folks
can take over! ♪

[ Cheering and applause ]

-Damn, I thought
it was pretty risky.

These are guys that never would
have been heard by anyone

if Ellis hadn't been
brave enough to do it.

And I gotta tell you,
I was glad I was teaching school

because I figured we were done.

Stick a fork in it,
we're done.

-There is just no way
that any other station

would've touched that.

-That was important because
we knew that you can't just say,

"I'm Black," and go with that.

You gotta do something.

You gotta show how Black you are
by your actions.

-'Cause we had, like,
at least six "nigga" poems.

We had "Die Nigga!!!"
and then we had

"Niggers Are Scared
of Revolution."

♪ Niggers
are scared of revolution ♪

So we were definitely trying
to "de-niggerize" our people.

-That's quite a statement.

You know, and when I was
listening to The Last Poets

and that, I kept watching
Barbara and Loretta.

And what were you feeling
while that was going on?

-I was thinking,
"It's about time

I hear something besides
'blondes have more fun'."

[ Laughter and applause ]

-Ellis found a vehicle
for himself in the arts

at Howard University
in Washington.

-He found himself
in the theater.

He didn't come there
as a theater person.

The Howard Players created plays

where they trained actors
and technicians.

They brought in the theater
of the world.

-The Howard had great shows

and the finest artists
in the world.

I never missed Louis Jordan
and His Tympany Five.

Then we went to the Elks Hall,
and there were recitations,

Langston Hughes's poetry
and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

We just -- we had the best
of everything

if you're not thinking
about money.

-Ellis began going to New York.

He would go to see a show
or whatever,

and he would stay
for three, four, five days.

-Ellis's younger sister, Janet,
loved New York.

She is ready to hop on the train

and go to any show or production
or invitation

that Ellis extended to her.

There was such a tight bond
between Ellis and Janet.

♪♪

-But Janet married a man
who was altogether different

from her family,

and Ellis knew the price
that she paid for that.

♪♪

-Ellis had some early credits
as a producer

and was gaining support
for his vision.

This theater thing was going
to be the stage

on which
Ellis's life would bloom.

-I met Ellis
in the summer of '63.

He was the stage manager

of a James Weldon Johnson
production

of "Trumpets of the Lord."

Ellis told me that
he and a friend

wanted to produce
"The Amen Corner"

in the context
of a European tour.

While I lived on Sheridan Square
and Ellis

would come up frequently
in the evenings,

I was also meeting with
James Baldwin from time to time.

Jimmy and Ellis didn't perhaps
get along terribly well at first

because they both
were extreme personalities.

But once they started working
together on "The Amen Corner,"

they got along very well
and worked together very well.

Jimmy was very pleased
with Ellis's ideas.

They became close friends
during the tour.

♪♪

These are the postcards Ellis
wrote from the European tour,

he's in Italy,
and then he says,

"As usual, all goes well,
expecting Jimmy here.

Dawdling off
for one mad Roman holiday."

Presumably with Jimmy,
I don't know.

♪♪

-And I often wondered, "How
does he know all these people?"

And they knew him
and they loved him,

and it wasn't so much
what he would do for them

as the relationship
that he had developed with them,

which they treasured.

-Ellis had this black book,
thick notebook,

and he'd open up that book,
and magic would come out of it.

-Do you have any joy in --

any particular joy
that overrides any other

in anything
that you've done, James?

-No, the best book --

a writer's best book
is his next book.

You know?
I mean that.

I'm not -- I'm not joking.
-Hey, we're running short.

What are we gonna do
about the O' Jays?

-The first season of 39 shows,
they were all live,

so no one knew
what was gonna be on them

except Ellis and his staff.

-♪ Yes, nobody loves me ♪

♪ Nobody seems to care ♪

♪ Speaking of worries
and sorrow, darling ♪

♪ You know I've had my share ♪

♪♪

-The FCC couldn't stop you.

No one can interrupt.

There was no seven-second delay.

You could do
anything you wanted.

-I think one of
the most beautiful things

is that there's a unity among us
all because we're all Black,

and that kind of soul
and that device goes together.

You agree, Marion?
-Oh, yes, I agree.

-My recollection of
the first year

is cemented forever

with Wilson Pickett
and Marion Williams

in the last show
of the year together.

-♪ Oh, happy day ♪
-♪ Oh, happy day ♪

-♪ Oh, happy day ♪
-♪ Oh, happy day ♪

-It was the most glorious thing,
and Odetta was in the audience.

No one had known it until then,
and she gets up,

and she starts dancing.

The whole audience is dancing.

-♪ Whoo ♪

♪ It's everywhere ♪

-♪ Oh, happy day ♪

-♪ Oh, happy day ♪

♪ When I get to heaven ♪

♪ Oh, happy day ♪

-My fellow Americans,

I ask you to share with me today

the majesty of this moment.

-Nixon becomes president
in 1969,

and the Nixon administration
is quite paranoid

about the ways that it
is covered by the media.

-What kind of a nation we will
be is ours as to determine.

I know the heart of America
is good.

♪♪

-Nixon sees the media
as a liberal force

opposed to the president's
policies and administration.

"SOUL!" is broadcasting in
a moment when there is,

from the highest levels,

hostility to liberal political
expression on television.

-We've actually presented
Black poets

from the very beginning
of "SOUL!"

and that has
been revolutionary.

Just name one other
consistent TV outlet

for those Black poets who have
been playing such a major role

in helping Black people deal
with today's reality.

[ Cheering and applause ]

-Ever been kidnapped by a poet?

If I were a poet,
I'd kidnap you,

put you in my phrases,
and meter you to Jones Beach

or maybe Coney Island,
or maybe just to my house,

lyric you in lilacs,
dash you in the rain,

blend into the beach
to complement my sea.

Play the lyre for you,
ode you with my love song.

Anything to win you.

Wrap you in the red-black-green,
show you off to Mama, yeah.

If I were a poet,
I'd kidnap you.

Hi.
-This was all emerging.

It was a new world,
and Ellis was a --

was a gardener,

and he cultivated
all of these people.

-That's where the genius
of Ellis, I think,

was most apparent.

He had an eye for people

who were absolutely bound
to be successful in this country

and who had not
yet been discovered,

but Ellis had seen them,

had witnessed them,
had experienced them,

and put them
right there in front.

-Yeah!
-I know we don't normally

get a chance
to sing our own songs,

and we're gonna do
this particular number.

♪♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
-♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

-♪ Mm ♪
-♪ Ooh, hey ♪

-When we first met
Ellis Haizlip, we were young.

We were babies.

But he saw something in us.

-He knew we were songwriters,
and he said,

"I want you to come on the show,
and I want you to illustrate

some of your songs,
and I want you" --

-'Cause we weren't
performers at all.

-Definitely not me.

-We were, like, so nervous
'cause it was,

like, brand-new to us,
and all the planning

and how we picked the singers
from the church and...

-Yeah.
-We got the musicians together.

-Of course,
we tried to kill it.

-♪ Reach out and touch
somebody's hand ♪

♪ Make this world a better place
if you can ♪

-♪ Reach out and touch
somebody's hand ♪

♪ Make this world a better place
if you can ♪

-♪ Just try ♪

-I don't know where we would be

if it wasn't for
Ellis Haizlip.

I mean, he put --
-There would not be

an Ashford and Simpson
without "SOUL!"

-He loved our music,
and he said,

"It's gonna be on 'SOUL!'"

And that was what was
so beautiful

about the way
he respected our music.

-And what he saw in us that
we hadn't yet seen in ourselves.

[ Cheering and applause ]

♪♪

-He could see you in places

that you couldn't see yourself,

and Ellis was a "race man"
in a way.

That was the old-time --

not that he had any disdain
for other races,

but that he was a strong
supporter of what we could do

and seeing to it that our story
was being told by our people.

That's what he did on SOUL!

He brought out the people who
could tell the story as artists.

-Hello, I'm Ellis Haizlip,
the producer of "SOUL!"

And we're very happy
to have Imamu Amiri Baraka.

He is one of the leading
Black voices of this time.

-♪ It's Nation Time ♪

Boo, boo!
Boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo.

[ Vocalizing ]

Boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo,
boo, boo, boo, boo, boo.

[ Vocalizing ]

Hey, ah!

[ Continues vocalizing ]

Boo, boo, boo, boo,
boo, boo, boo.

♪ Singer, get up time
to nation-fy ♪

♪ Singer, miracle fire light,
singer, airplane invisibility ♪

♪ For the Jesus niggas
come from the grave ♪

♪ For the Jesus niggas
dead in the cave ♪

♪ Black Jesus nigga,
come out and strike ♪

♪ Come out and strike ♪
-It became clear to me

that it was time that we speak
directly to what was going on

rather than bite our tongue
or seem diplomatic,

that it was time to say,
"All this stuff is wrong,

and you need to stop it,
or we gonna stop you."

And there was a whole group
of people,

young people getting inflamed

by the movement
reaching new heights.

That was the whole rise

in the Black arts movement
in Harlem.

We said we wanted an art
that was culturally Black.

We wanted a art that was not

just to titillate
the minds of the elite,

but we wanted the art
that would contribute

to the liberation
of Black people.

♪ Get up, nigga,
get up ♪

♪ It's Nation Time ♪
[ Cheering and applause ]

That poem became kind of
an anthemic pronouncement

of national consciousness,
really asking,

"It's time for us to think
specifically about

Black people
as a nation of people."

-♪ To the beat, huh? ♪

-The death of Malcolm X,

in many ways, propelled
the Black arts movement.

Malcolm had left
the Nation of Islam

and was forming
a lot of coalitions,

really looking much
more globally

and connecting the struggle here

with struggles
for independence abroad,

and the Black arts movement

was a way of popularizing
the ideas of Blackness

and really exploring those ideas

and trying to define
what it meant

to be Black
in this country,

what it meant
to be Black on this planet.

-The primary purpose of "SOUL!"

is neither to educate
nor to entertain,

but to give people a chance

to share
in the Black experience.

The show must do that first.

Then it can educate
and entertain.

"SOUL!" makes Blacks visible
in a society

where they have been
largely invisible.

♪♪

I think I can suggest to you
that if you would place

your hands on the television
set in your homes,

you might feel
some of the vibrations

that we are attempting
to send out tonight.

I hope you will be able to deal
with it

because it will be beautiful.

So why don't we get together
and have a warm reception

as we welcome again to "SOUL!"

Ms. Barbara Ann Teer.

-My mom,
Dr. Barbara Ann Teer,

she thought that theater
was a means to galvanize folks.

That day on "SOUL!"
was our own church --

for us, by us,
restorative in all forms.

-Just relax and groove
with your Blackness.

-It was an incredible sight

to invite people into this
complete and utter love affair

with your Blackness.

And there were
the most beautiful Black folks

in the audience
sitting forward in their seats,

holding incense,
reaching out to one another,

and I think that level
of Black care, Black love,

Black sister-and-brotherhood
was something that,

in and of itself, on
national TV, was revolutionary.

-Thank God he found that outlet
that allowed Channel 13

to show us in all our beauty
and all our eccentricity,

all of our opulence
and grandeur, you know?

And so the rest of the world
could see what --

you know, what --
who are these people

who have been burdened by
so much

and yet sing and carry on

and got flair and got style?

-♪ When she lets you fall ♪

♪ You're like a diamond ♪

♪ But she treats you
like glass ♪

♪ Yet you beg her to love you ♪

♪ Ha!
But me, you don't ask ♪

♪ If I were your woman ♪
-♪ If you were my woman ♪

-♪ If I were your woman ♪

-♪ If you were
my woman ♪

-♪ If I were your woman ♪
-♪ If you were my woman ♪

-♪ Here's what I'd do ♪

♪ I'd never, no, no,
stop loving you ♪

-There were so many women
in his life.

He loved their energy
and creativity and art.

-Ellis Haizlip understood that
it was just an assumption

that there were interesting
women doing interesting things,

and he had Toni Morrison

when she had just published
her first novel.

He provided incredible
opportunities for Black women

professionally at all levels.

He had a mostly female
production staff.

I don't know if national TV
shows have that.

-We had to put Black women
back on a stage,

but the whole movement
was sexist.

The NAACP was sexist.

The movement that Martin led
was sexist.

Everything was sexist,
make no mistake about it.

America was homophobic
and sexist.

It wasn't just the Black arts.

And the thing that we did
as women

is that we began
to break it down.

-It's "SOUL!" --

and this is your announcer,
Gary Byrd.

Tonight on "SOUL!" we get
a little closer to the sisters

as "SOUL!"
salutes the Black woman.

-Yeah, I don't think
poetry existed actively.

I mean, there was
the Beat Generation,

but on television, ever,
not ever,

until "SOUL!"

where you could have a show that
was just dedicated to poets.

-Brother Ellis was going to
bring Black women

to the forefront.

-Take my share of soul food.

I do not wish to taste of pig,

of either gut or grunt
from bowel or jaw.

-Right on.
-I want caviar.

Shrimp soufflé, sherry,
champagne,

and not because
these are the whites' domains

but because I'm entitled,

for I've been VD'd enough,

TB'd enough, hoe-cake-fed,
knock knee'd enough,

spindly led bloodhound tree'd
enough to eat high on the hog.

I've been hired last...
-You know, I really do think

that Brother Ellis did more
for poetry on television,

more than any other show
on television,

yesterday, today,
and probably tomorrow.

-♪ Black lovers must live ♪

♪ Push against the devils
of this world ♪

♪ Against the creeping
whiteness of they own minds ♪

♪ I am yo' woman, my man,
and Black women ♪

♪ They deal in babies ♪

♪ And sweet Black kisses ♪

♪ And nights that multiply
by twos ♪

-What he was doing
was simply changing --

every night,
he was on that program,

changing someone's mind
about Black folks...

About Black culture,
about what it meant to be

Black in America, right?

And what people, young people
were doing in America

to effect change,
but he was also wise enough

to know that he
was changing white folks, too.

[ Playing piano ]

♪♪

-♪ Glory, glory ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

♪ When I lay my burden down ♪

-To be on "SOUL!"
with such extraordinary women,

celebrating Black women,

was one of the great honors
of my life.

-♪ When I lay my ♪

♪ Burden down ♪

♪ I'm gonna meet my ♪

-When Sister Carmen danced...

-♪ Dear old mother ♪

-...time stopped in that studio.

-♪ When I lay my ♪

-She came out and she'd dance
and you'd close your eyes,

and you leaned back
on your eyes,

and you could see her
moving inside your bloodstream.

-This piece, "Come Sunday,"

is absolutely
one of my favorites.

It was choreographed
by my husband, Geoffrey Holder,

just in honor of Odetta
because we loved her so much.

-♪ Joshua fought the battle
of Jericho ♪

♪ And them walls
come a-tumbling down ♪

-You know, if it touches
your soul, you can dance.

-♪ Oh, them walls ♪

♪ Come a-tumbling ♪

♪ Down ♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Ellis grew up in Washington.

There were four children --
Doris, Ellis, Janet,

and Lionel Haizlip.

-I think he was closest to
Janet, his younger sister.

-Seems like they had
a very idyllic childhood,

and Ellis was always
the center of attention.

Ellis would put on
dramatic productions

with the neighborhood children
in their yard

at the house on Sheriff Road.

He was the performer,
the leader, the producer,

the one with the ideas
and the creativity.

-My mother died when I was
17 years old.

It was a great tragedy
in my life,

but I often remember
her voice calling,

"Come on, children.

Let's have hot milk cake
before dinner,"

and there she'd be,
stirring up this little batter,

all of us around
the kitchen table

together at the end
of a tired day.

♪♪

-After Ellis's mother died,

my mother became almost
a surrogate for Ellis.

His father was very, very, very
religious and very closed in.

There were strictures
that were to be observed

in terms of appropriate dress,
and you didn't dance.

Well, that was just not Ellis.
It just wasn't.

With Ellis spending increasingly
more time at our house

rather than his own,

I came to know
that Ellis was different.

The term "gay" was not in vogue
at that time.

You know, you were effeminate
or, you know,

you had
these different interests.

You were just different, and...

but nobody talked about it.

The coded word from
Uncle Ellis's father was,

"Boy, you need to get serious
and get a job.

You should not let this spirit
that's coming out of you --

you should not let it
come forward,"

and I knew
that's what he meant.

I didn't know that he was
saying, "You can't be gay.

You can't be a sissy.

You can't be feminine.

You need to be --
you need to exhibit

masculine characteristics."

♪♪

That really hurt me
a lot because...

♪♪

...even then I knew that Ellis
was a very special person

and that he needed
a nourishing environment

rather than a critical one.

♪♪

-We're going down 48th, and
we're approaching Sheriff Road,

which is the main street
of my life.

[ Chuckles ]
And Ellis's life.

This was a Negro neighborhood,
without question.

♪♪

Would you look at that?

♪♪

This is it.

Oh, I'd almost like to put
my arms around it and say,

"Yeah, this is it."
This was us.

This was where Ellis started
his life on this planet.

-Ellis had an appreciation
for Black performance

that I think was shaped
by his experience in the church.

At Third Street Church of God,

we have a pew dedicated
to the memory of Ellis's father.

There is a basic spirituality

that perhaps surfaces
in the choice of "SOUL!" --

gospel music, and the spirituals
and the poetry

and the presentation
of the church.

Ellis was steeped in that.

-♪ How glad I am ♪

♪ God laid his hands on me ♪

♪ Thank you, Lord,
thank you, Lord ♪

♪ Thank you for touching me,
Lord ♪

♪ Thank you, Lord ♪

♪♪

♪ When I touch a piano, mm ♪

[ Cheering and applause ]

♪♪

♪ I'm giving God the praise ♪

-My religion is the gospel song
rather than the gospel,

the gospel according to song.

-♪ Throughout ♪

♪ My earthly ♪

♪♪

♪ My-y-y-y earthly ♪

♪ Day, yeah ♪

♪ Hey, yeah, yeah ♪

[ Cheering and applause ]

-I wanted to do my poetry gospel
because I'm Black American.

I grew up in the Baptist Church,

so I wanted to do
something to that music.

That's the music in my head.

And Ellis knew Lenny Diggs.

Lenny lived in Harlem,
so we went up and met the choir,

and I think everybody
was nervous,

and he said, "Must Jesus
bear the cross alone?"

and somebody said,
"Yeah, let Jesus,"

and I thought,
"I love this choir."

-♪ Oh, the billows ♪

♪ You see the billows ♪

♪ Yeah, are tossing high ♪

♪ Oh, thank you, Jesus ♪

♪ Lord, the sky ♪

♪ The sky is o'er shadowed,
shadowed ♪

♪ With so much blackness ♪

♪ Oh, thank the Lord ♪

-I mean, who would have thought
that you could make gospel music

with modern poetry,
and that it would be something

that people
could actually listen to?

-♪ Lord, we need help tonight ♪

-In the beginning was the word,
and the word was "death,"

and the word was "nigger,"
and the word was,

"Death to all niggers,"
and the word was,

"Death to all life,"
and the word was,

"Death to all peace, be still."

-♪ Peace, be still ♪

-The genesis was life,

the genesis was death,

and the genesis of death
was the genesis of war.

Be still, peace, be still.

-♪ Peace be still ♪

-In the name of peace,
they waged the wars --

ain't they got no shame?

In the name of peace,
Lot's wife is now

a product of the Morton Company:
no, they ain't got no shame.

Noah packing his wife
and kiddies up for a holiday,

row, row, row your boat,

but why'd you leave
the unicorns, Noah, huh?

Why'd you leave them while our
Black Madonna stood there,

18 feet high, listening to
the rumblings of,

"Peace, be still, be still."

-♪ Peace, peace ♪

-Because of the
New York Community Choir

and because it was gospel choir,
we got played on gospel radio.

But because it was me,
we got played on normal radio.

It wasn't called
the spoken word then.

If it had been spoken word,
I would have a Grammy.

See, somebody owes me a Grammy.

[ Applause ]

-He wanted to present
those wonderful poets,

Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou,

but dance was one
of his main thrusts.

-And he was so
in tune with dance.

He was quietly taking care
of the business

that would then
make you look great.

-George Faison had just
left the Ailey Company,

but he was
very anxious to choreograph.

That's when Ellis presented
George on "SOUL!"

And that was the beginning
of a long relationship

with dance and camera.

-Ellis and Stan called me
and said, "Can you do something?

Because we want a little dance
in 'You and I.'"

So I got two dancers,

that was Gary DeLoatch
and Eleanor McCoy,

to come down to the studio,
unrehearsed,

and we did it on the spot,

and he used it
in a segment of that dance.

It involved romantic turns
and lifts and so forth

that would be used
in the interlude

in Stevie Wonder's song.

-♪ You're in my mind ♪

♪ You know that you'll
stay here always ♪

-"SOUL!" was one of
the only shows

that presented Black dance,

and Ellis was certainly
very aware of the emerging

as well as
the seasoned choreographers.

-♪ You and I ♪

♪ You and I-I-I ♪

♪ In my mind ♪

♪ We can conquer the world ♪

♪ And love ♪

♪ You and I,
you and I ♪

♪ You and I ♪

♪♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ You and I ♪

[ Applause ]

♪♪

-You've had such a success
at what I consider

a very early age.

First maybe you ought to tell
the audience how old you are.

Is that cool?
-25.

-25?
-25.

-How long have you
been singing?

-I've been singing, um...
uh...

since I was about 8 or 9.

-There's a feeling
that's going around,

and if you haven't heard about
that particular feeling

that is going around,
the feeling is...

♪ Loving you, baby ♪

Oh, see there, you don't wanna
mess with that, do you?

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

-Here was Al Green up here,

singing about relationships,

so they would cut away to
sisters in the audience.

You could just see what was
going on behind their eyes.

-♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪

♪ Let me say ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ I'm so in love with you ♪

Thank you! [ Chuckles ]

♪ Whatever you want to do, mm ♪

♪ Is all right with me ♪

Thank you.

♪ Oh, 'cause you make me feel ♪

-Ellis Haizlip's ability to
really make everything cohesive,

I mean, there was so much great
visual style to the show.

-♪ It's all I see ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Let's ♪

♪ Let's stay together ♪

-That just didn't exist anywhere
else in media at the time.

Like, when Al Green is singing,
that backdrop,

this multicolored,
abstract expressionist,

looked like something off
"Star Trek,"

these kind of glowing lights
were going on and off,

but then there's also
these shots,

they did from just
the back of the room

where it's just a sea of Afros.

Like, a sea of just big,
bulbous Afros,

and you'd think about the Afro
being the ultimate

kinda statement
of follicle militancy, right?

-♪ Wow, wow ♪

-♪ Hey ♪

-Ellis already knew that Black
culture was world culture.

♪♪

Ellis already knew
that Black culture led;

it didn't pull.

Black culture was
the original avant garde,

but he knew this in the '60s.

♪♪

-Uh-huh.

♪♪

-Who else would have had
Rahsaan Roland Kirk on?

Rahsaan came on one day,
and I asked him,

why are you having -- why the --

He said,
"Because he's crazy."

♪♪

Rahsaan Roland Kirk
was a visionary reed player,

and he played three instruments
at one time.

He did a thing on the air,

and in the middle of
the performance,

he got so manic, he ripped up a
bridge chair with his own hands.

And Ellis just loved it.

He was outside.
He was always outside.

♪♪

That program was so beyond
its time,

that it was in time.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Encouraging shouts ]

♪♪

♪♪

-Ellis was a product
of his own creation.

-Unlike other so-called
variety shows,

Ellis Haizlip was
an important personality,

but he was not at the center,

even as a charismatic
and beloved figure.

The show was not about him
the way that

"Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson"

was about Johnny Carson.

-He was one of the great
listeners.

A lot of people
who host television

want to be performers,

and so
their personality intrudes

in the questions they ask.

-This guy,
he was very, very laid back,

totally non-threatening,

and he was hurling bullets.

No one had to brief him
on what needed to be asked.

No one had to brief him
on what was gonna go on.

In a sense,
he was the perfect host.

-For all
of his mellow presentation,

this was blowing the lid off
the generic expectations

of American television.

-The following program
is from NET.

[ Cheering and applause ]

♪♪

-♪ Whoa, yeah, yeah ♪

-One of our main influences
in terms of our style,

in terms of doing choreography,

as well as our sound,
was The Delfonics.

We were very impressed by
The Delfonics.

-♪ Oh, baby ♪

-♪ Didn't I blow your mind
this time, didn't I? ♪

-♪ Yeah ♪

-♪ I thought that heart
of yours ♪

-Not only did
William "Poogie" Hart

sing like an angel,
but on stage,

their presentation
was so cool.

-♪ Baby, yeah ♪

-After they came out on stage,
I mean,

the confidence that they had
was really cool.

So I said, you know,
I want to be like them.

♪♪

-♪ Oh, I keep asking
you questions ♪

-♪ You've been tellin'
me lies ♪

-♪ Caught you messin' around
with another guy ♪

-We knew how important
the show was...

-To our community.
-...to our community.

-It's the title of the show,
"SOUL!"

You know, it was for us.

-At the time we were, what,
17, 18?

-He was so scared.

-Oh, I was frightened to death!

I used to have
to chew on a button

before I went on stage
because I was so nervous.

-♪ I never meant to hurt you ♪

♪ And you always said
you'd be my girl ♪

-♪ Don't turn around ♪

-When they released
"Don't Turn Around"...

-We were in 11th grade.

We really honed
our choreography

to make sure that it was
on point for the show.

I mean, we rehearsed,
like, every day.

-I feel that R&B music forms
the floor for Black pride.

♪♪

♪♪

-Kool & The Gang
was on "SOUL!"

and Ellis Haizlip,
he was the smoothest guy

that we had met at the time.

That was our first
television show,

and that gave us
a whole lot of exposure.

We played "Who's Gonna Take
the Weight"

and "Chocolate Buttermilk."

That was a favorite at the time.

Yeah, we had
those crazy outfits,

all of that kind of dress.

It was important to look
your best on TV.

♪♪

-♪ Yow! ♪

♪♪

-We had our hair styled
by the stylist at that time.

Her name was Diane.

It was the most perfect Afro cut
I have ever had in my life.

-When we looked at each other,

it was like, "Wow.
Who's that?"

-Ellis had a wonderful
hairdresser, Diane.

She did all our hair.

You know, at that time, we were
all wearing meticulous Afros.

-The whole '70s was just
a time to boogie.

It was a time to get down,
so we did.

♪♪

-It was about "SOUL!"
And not "Soul Train."

This is "SOUL!"

-In the midst of all of this,
Ellis got me into TV.

He was the first person
who allowed me

to produce my own show
on television,

and it was a hit.

He knew I loved Black music.

It is African music,
pure and simple.

And one day
when we're discussing it,

I'm talking about the virtues
of Latin music,

and how, in 1945,

Machito and Chano Pozo
and Dizzy Gillespie get together

and form this incredible
Afro-Cuban jazz.

He said,
"Stop talking, baby boy,

would you like to do a show?"
And I was flabbergasted.

No one had ever given me
the opportunity to do my talent.

No one had ever done that.

Driving Latin rhythms

coming out of
candy store jukeboxes,

trumpets, trumpets, trumpets,

big brass mashed
with sultry fungi sprouts,

palm trees in the middle
of frozen streets;

rhythms, rhythms, rhythms,
counter-rhythms, poly-rhythms.

Watusi, watusi, watusi, watusi.

It worked out very well,

and I end the segment
by saying...

Brothers and sisters,
I have great pleasure

in introducing to you tonight
Mr. Tito Puente!

Biyaaa!

[ Band playing ]

♪♪

♪♪

-It's "SOUL!"

Tonight's show is entitled
"Shades of 'SOUL': Part One:"

Varieties of the Black
and Brown Experience.

[ Cheering and applause ]

You know, Ellis has this way
of being very, very creative.

He'd tell you he's from
the village of Prokupi

or someplace when
he's feeling expansive.

-Have you heard
the "Let It Be" story?

Well, he's the one who gave
the song to the Beatles,

you know that, don't you?
[ Laughing ]

He said, "Let it be, Paul,
let it be!"

And they went, "Ah!"

-♪ Unh!
Aww, sookie, sookie now ♪

-There's a rent party in Harlem
and Ellis's mother Sarah

is there, and Duke Ellington
came and had to go to

another part of town.

He was asking Sarah
for directions,

and she said, "Well, you should
take the A train."

♪♪

Then that becomes the signature
musical performance

of Duke Ellington.

It is entirely apocryphal,

it never happened,
but it's a great story.

-Ellis told me about the affairs
he had had

with Princess Margaret,

the Dalai Lama,
and Lyndon Johnson.

I told him
that that was impossible.

And he looked at me and smiled,

but sort of sympathetically,
and said,

"David, don't you know
that I lie?"

♪♪

-Ellis was always
looking for the edge

in the conversations that he had
between writers and poets.

♪♪

-Ellis said,
"If you could do anything,

what would you like to do?"
and I said, "That's too easy.

I'd love to talk
to Jimmy Baldwin."

He said, "I know Jimmy."

Well, Baldwin said to Ellis,
"You know, I'd love to do it,

but I don't have time to come
to the United States,"

and Ellis said,
"How about London?"

-Here was James Baldwin
on national television

in a two-hour special being
interviewed by Nikki Giovanni,

and here was Baldwin,
the homosexual poet...

You know, those two words,

you mentioned them
in the commercial stations,

and people go running
from the room.

Here was this icon
of American literature,

forget Black literature,
of American literature

being interviewed
by an iconic poet.

-When our game starts running,
and after all --

after all, baby,
we have survived

the roughest game
in the history of the world.

-Yeah.
-You know, we really have.

No matter what we say
against ourselves, you know,

no matter what our limits
and hang-ups are,

you know, we have
come through some --

we have come through
something, you know?

And if we can get this far,
we can get further, you know,

and we got this far by means
which no one understands,

including you and me.

We're only beginning
to apprehend it,

and you're a poet precisely
because you were beginning

to apprehend it
and put into a form, you know,

which will be useful
for your kid

and his kid,
you know, and for the world.

-The Brits shot it.
It was really funny.

You know, Jimmy talked
with his hands, as do I,

and so there was a lot of time
they were shooting our hands.

We did not have
an American director,

who would have
shot our faces.

-'Cause we're not obliged to
accept the world's definitions.

Just because white people
say they're white,

we're not obliged
to believe it.

You know, just 'cause the pope
says he's a Christian,

we're not obliged to believe it.

-And we'd be crazy
if we did.

-We gotta make
our own definitions

and begin to rule
the world that way.

Because kids, white and Black,

cannot use what they have
been given, you know?

-And they're rejecting it.
-They're rejecting it.

Nobody wants to become
the president of Pan Am

or the governor of California,

or a Spiro T. Agnew.

The kids want to live.

-What I most loved about

the James Baldwin-
Nikki Giovanni episode

is you could see
James Baldwin's fire,

which of course you get on
the pages of anything he writes,

but the intonation,
all the ways in which he conveys

and articulates his words
with his whole body,

you get that, but you also get
this kind of mentorship

that he's offering her.

-Why do we as Black writers
seem to be so hung up

in the truth?
-No one yet believes really,

there is such a thing
as a Black writer.

A Black writer is still
a freak, you know?

A dancing dog.

We don't yet exist in the
imagination of this century,

and we cannot afford
to play games.

There's too much at stake.

-But there has to be a way
to do what we do and survive,

which is, to me,
what seems to be missing.

-Sweetheart, sweetheart,

our ancestors taught us
how to do that.

We have survived until now.

What we call
"Black literature"...

-James Baldwin gave me a sense
for the first time

that the artist had a role
as a citizen

that was uniquely potent.

-Our job is to present
Black culture,

and R&B music
is a vital part of that.

Entertainment
can be a deep business.

It's not all just
finger-popping time.

We give exposure to
Black artists of all types,

people whom you practically
never see on white TV,

and I feel good about
what we're doing.

♪♪

-There was a lot of music
on television.

There was
"Don Kirshner's Rock Concert,"

"Midnight Special,"
"Bandstand."

"Soul Train" hadn't really
surfaced at that point.

-♪ Ooh, hey! ♪

On all those other shows,
artists would come on,

they'd stand up on a platform,
and they'd,

in most cases,
lip-sync.

On "SOUL!",
there were several groups

that had their first
TV experience,

and for most of 'em it was
their first actual live

performing on television.

-And here now, the elements
of the universe,

Earth, Wind & Fire.

[ Applause ]

♪♪

-Earth, Wind & Fire,
it was a big deal for them.

Maurice was real excited

because he was actually gonna be
performing live on television,

and he knew the show
was gonna show nationally.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-We copied the idea from
Earth, Wind & Fire

of playing
without playing.

Like...

[ Clapping in time ]

And "SOUL!" was
an important part

of my cultural daily intake.

♪♪

-We always speak of ourselves
as sons and daughters of kings.

So we have a right to refer
to ourselves as Your Highness,

but when we say "highness"
now in our communities,

we're not talking
about royalty,

so this is called
"Bad News for Your Highness."

It's a song to deposed kings.

-Well, you know, that was
such a common topic

because, remember, dope --

the dope thing was
just out to lunch.

-Dope is shit,
shit-eater.

Put shit in your arm,
in your mama's tears.

When they drag you out a hallway

and Sheldon Baloney
giggles about it,

what difference do it make?

Stay high, sucker chump.

Yeah, dope is shit.

Yeah, stay high, sucker chump.

-The president of the station
said,

"Well, this is -- this is gonna
get taken off the air,"

and Ellis said,
"Let 'em take it off."

I said, "Then you're gonna rob
the audience

of hearing some great poetry

because you won't
let me bleep it."

He said, "All right, bleep it,
but bleep it loud."

-Dope is shit!
[ Delayed bleep]

Put shit in your arm,
in your mama's tears.

[ Test tone ]

-My first appearance on "SOUL!"
was in 1971.

I was a dancer,
I danced with Ailey,

but I was growing up
in a political world,

and I had created
a dance called "Poppy,"

which was very topical
because it dealt with drugs.

The metaphor come to life

was this spider character
that I had created,

and I illustrated through
several vignettes

what heroin can do to a life.

[ Laughing maniacally ]

♪♪

Ellis saw this dance
and was really taken by it

because he dealt
with social issues.

♪♪

-America's public enemy
number one

in the United States

is drug abuse.

In order to fight
and defeat this enemy,

it is necessary to wage
a new all-out offensive.

♪♪

-Ellis Haizlip,
he did not mind controversy.

I mean, he had
Minister Farrakhan on his show.

-In the interview
with Minister Louis Farrakhan,

he raises the issue
of homosexuality,

but he also lets
Minister Farrakhan speak.

-I mean, who else would have
had Minister Farrakhan

at the time that he was being
reviled in the United States?

Ellis was a openly gay male.

He knew the homophobia
of the Nation of Islam,

and he sat right beside him

and asked him some
incisive questions.

-Very recently, and this
probably gets back

to the morality or immorality,

we have seen quite
a few incidents

where prisoners --

and I think
it's a known fact

that quite a few of the people

who had been brought
to the Nation of Islam

have discovered
their righteousness

while incarcerated
in a prison --

and one of the things
that most males

and, now I understand
from the news that's coming out,

a lot of females
have to deal with

is homosexual relations
in prisons.

How can they serve
the Nation of Islam,

and does the fact that a man is
a homosexual have anything to do

that would negate
his coming into the Nation

and being dealt with
by the Nation of Islam?

-I think that when one looks
at that episode,

you're seeing Ellis
taking Farrakhan to task

in terms
of sexual orientation

and not sweeping it
under the rug,

and Farrakhan,
from what I could glean,

was --
responded with a sermon.

-Let me say this,
my dear brother,

and to you
in our viewing audience.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
has been raised up by Allah

not to condemn our people,

but to reclaim the fallen
Black man of America.

-Farrakhan literally --
it's, like, 4 1/2 minutes,

I've timed it -- you know,
kind of, like, canned speech.

The audience loves it.

It's an offensive speech
in many ways.

-And we will take this one
but leave this one off.

Who are we to pass
that kind of judgment

on our brothers and sisters?

We know the question
should be asked,

whence came this perversion

or this deviation?

-And he was also, you know,
preaching to the choir

because he had all his folks
there, you know,

and the Nation of Islam
was in the audience,

which was very interesting

'cause there was that call
and response.

-Man by nature is inclined to
and leans toward the female.

-Right.
-And the female by nature

leans toward the male.

-Yes, sir.
-Now, we wanna know,

whence came this deviation?
-Yes!

-Whence came this perversion?

-And after that Ellis Haizlip
says, "You're amazing,"

and I don't think he's saying,
"You're amazing

'cause I think
what you're saying is right."

"You're amazing 'cause look at
the power with which you speak.

Look at how you rally.
Look how you make people feel,"

and there's something
valuable about that.

-I get the sense that Ellis
did not need him --

his approval, you know,
to be himself,

and I think that Ellis knew
that sexuality was fluid, and...

and, you know, what he got
from Farrakhan

was Farrakhan's conceding that,
you know, all will be accepted,

you know, that even though
we're gonna try to change you,

whether or not they're gonna
change someone,

you know, that's a question,

but he did get Farrakhan
to articulate

and embrace of
same-gender-loving

women and men,

and that was really powerful on,
you know, television,

national television
and public television, yeah.

[ Applause ]

-Ellis had balls. I always
respected Ellis. He had balls.

[ Chuckles ]
I have to give it to him,

Ellis -- he had more balls
than the straight guys,

when it comes to repositioning
the, uh...

having the guts
to reposition,

the appreciation, understanding,
and worthiness

of people of color.

-Ellis was the most effective,

insidious revolutionary
that I have ever met.

-Protest comes in
various forms:

marching, sitting in,
fasting, fighting,

I mean, getting down with it.

Protest can be a brick hurtling
through some dumb window,

and it can be the simple
refusal to participate

in some inhuman
but popular act.

-♪ Sometimes ♪

♪ I feel ♪

♪ Like a motherless child ♪

♪♪

♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

-Individualism is a luxury
that we can no longer afford!

-The definition of Black power
is the coming together

of Black people to fight
for their liberation

by any means necessary.

-♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

♪ Like a motherless child ♪
-But I have news for you.

This time, there's a difference.

This time, we're going to win!

Think of America.

We haven't had a moment
of peace at all.

We've seen crime go up
at astronomical rates,

and we will do
what they have not done

and provide the peace
that Americans want.

-The Black Panther Party
overlooks nothing,

is afraid of nothing,

and is able to resolve a major
contradiction of our time.

-A necessity for order --
or law and order --

now that's just really
a code word for racism.

-You asked me, you know,

whether I approve of violence.

I mean, that just doesn't make
any sense at all.

-Order without progress
is tyranny.

You cannot have order without
progress in a free society.

Eventually
there'll be an explosion.

-This FBI agent in California
had said,

"The young Negroes want
something to be proud of."

-My fellow Americans,

we're going to win
because our cause is right.

-"But they need to know
if they become revolutionaries,

they'll be
dead revolutionaries."

-This, I say to you tonight,
is the real voice of America.

-I just find it incredible
because what it means

is that the person
who's asking that question

has absolutely no idea what
Black people have gone through,

what Black people have
experienced in this country

since the time the first
Black person was kidnapped

from the shores of Africa.

-♪ Like I'm almost ♪

♪ Done ♪

-♪ A long ♪

♪ Way ♪

♪ From ♪

♪ Home ♪

[ Applause ]
-Thank you. Thank you.

I'm Ellis Haizlip,
and we are happy to have you

with us this evening.

We're also happy to have with us
the mother

of the late George Jackson,

and we say only the body
of George Jackson is gone

because the spirit
of George Jackson lives on.

May we welcome
Mrs. Georgia Jackson

to New York
and "SOUL!"

-Ellis's approach was to find
the humanity

of George Jackson
through his mother,

and his mother
had such composure.

She spoke well.
She humanized her son.

-Mrs. Jackson,
George wrote of you,

and he said that you were the
perfect revolutionary mother,

and I wonder,
when did you first become,

to use a phrase, radicalized
against the system?

-I don't consider myself
radical.

I don't consider myself
militant.

That's a name that is put on
all the people in America

who speak up
for their own rights

and who try to point out
the injustices

that go on in this country.

You're immediately named
a radical or a militant

or a revolutionary
or any other term

that they choose to hang on you,

but I consider myself
a Black American mother

fighting for justice
for all Black Americans

and all oppressed people
all over the world.

[ Applause ]

-He did the same thing
with Malcolm X

by humanizing Malcolm X through
Betty Shabazz's interview.

-Some people thought
of Betty Shabazz

as being a kind of celebrity,
but Ellis realized,

"Here's a woman whose husband
has been assassinated,

does not necessarily
have the infrastructure

of, you know,
the Nation of Islam

or any other organization
to watch over her."

He really thought about,
"How do we protect this woman,

and how do we support
the martyrs

and the spouses of martyrs
in the freedom struggle?"

-"SOUL!" was giving a voice,
TV exposure,

to people who were
activists, revolutionaries.

I was Eldridge's wife,

but I was also
his communications secretary.

The FBI was very,
very disturbed by that.

When I came into America
I came from Algiers;

I ended up on "SOUL!"
to restore an understanding

of what the Black Panther
party was really about.

-Sitting with me now
is a sister

who is deeply involved
in what I should call

"Right On"
revolutionary business.

She is a member of

the Revolutionary People's
Communications Network.

Kathleen Cleaver is known
to most of you

as the wife of
Brother Eldridge Cleaver.

Welcome to "SOUL!" Kathleen.
-Thank you, brother.

-Kathleen, given that you have
been in the struggle since 1964,

have two kids, do you think
you will remain in the struggle

for the rest of your life,
you know, in the vanguard or --

-I don't think I have
any alternative at this point,

even if I tried, even if I had
any desire to withdraw,

I mean, the opposition,
the enemies,

the forces that are opposing
the Black Panther Party,

that has no way diminished --
and, in fact,

does, to some extent,
increased the harassment,

intimidation, the brutality,
imprisonment

that they're subjected to.

This is serious business.
Our lives were at stake.

We were being threatened,

and the police were
very hostile to us.

And you're telling me
there's a hit out on me?

It was unnerving,

but that's kind of what we
signed up for

in revolutionary struggle.

It's a matter of life and death.

You hope you'll live,
but there is no guarantee.

-With all of my sense of early
love and understanding at home,

it took the rebellion of Black
people to create an atmosphere

in which I could
function at all,

and so remembering all of those
who fought for liberation

and for my freedom,
that's where my priorities are.

-Ellis was seditious, you know?

You know, no one's ever said
that about him.

People will say things like,
"Oh, he had a great vision,

and he was
a nice middle-class man," right?

He was seditious.

That whole program
was seditious.

-"SOUL!" was undiluted.

It was absolutely in your face,

and that was its value
and also its undoing.

-Now I gotta go to Vietnam.

They want me to go to Vietnam
to shoot some Black folks

that never lynched me,
never called me "nigger,"

never put no dog on me,
never assassinated my leaders.

I'm fighting to free him,

and my mama ain't free
in Louisville,

so since I gotta die,
just let me die here, now.

[ Cheering and applause ]

-♪ So, Mr. Backlash, Backlash ♪

♪ Who do think I am? ♪

♪ You raise my taxes
and freeze my wages ♪

♪ Send my son to Vietnam ♪

♪ You give me
second class houses ♪

♪ Second class schools ♪

♪ Do you think that
all colored people ♪

♪ Are just
second class fools? ♪

♪ Mr. Backlash ♪

♪ I'm gonna leave you with
the blues, yes, I am ♪

-My intention is to box,
to win a clean fight,

but in war, the intention
is to kill, kill, kill, kill,

and continue killing
innocent people.

-♪ I'm warnin' you, yeah,
somehow, some way, yeah ♪

♪ I'm gonna leave you
with the blues ♪

♪♪

-The "SOUL!" show was offensive
to the national

white narrative about

what is allowable thought among
Black people about themselves.

"SOUL!" tried to be a window

to get through
to people of color,

that, here's a larger way
of seeing yourself

and appreciating yourself.

-It was an evolutionary process.

We grew out of Stepin Fetchit.

We grew out of Mantan Moreland.

Out of us will come yet
directors and producers

who will have infinitely
more freedom.

This freedom that we have
and the freedom that

they will have comes
from the strength

that has been husbanded now
in the Black community

and is being felt politically,
economically,

and philosophically throughout
the land.

-Many people assume that
with material success

comes a certain
kind of absolute power,

and I dare say
that there's no such a thing.

If you are Black in America,
you are Black in America.

-Thank you.

With that, I --

[ Applause ]

♪♪

-When Ellis loved you,
he really loved you.

-He became part of
an extended family

and for somebody like me,
it was very important

because my family
had been broken.

-Ellis was very much himself,

as a gay man, or two-spirited,

or however you wanna say it.

That was his magic,
being himself

and really allowing
for the creation

of a different type of family.

He didn't leave his family
like a lot of LGBT folks

of that generation
might have done.

He embraced that family,
even if there might

have been complexities
in terms of acceptance,

but he also was creating
his family

and creating
this large community

that he was also feeding.

And he also saw love,
in many ways,

like James Baldwin
or Bayard Rustin.

It was a love that was
beyond the romantic.

It was this vast love,

and everything came
from that with Ellis.

-And now we return
to Stevie Wonder.

-When Stevie was there,
he was so at home.

We couldn't get him
off the stage,

like when he did "Superstition."

He just went on and on and on
and on and on.

♪♪

-The artist and the audience
share in a real experience.

It's a love exchange.

The Black performers are more
at ease with the Black audience

and are sensitive
to its vibrations,

so we get a better show.

-♪ Very superstitious ♪

♪ Writing's on the wall ♪

♪ Very superstitious ♪

-We ran out of tape,
and he just went on forever.

I think we might have even
changed the reels,

those big 2-inch reels,

and started recording again
in the same song.

The place went crazy, and he
could just feel the energy.

He fed off of it.

-Like, it's one thing to watch
Stevie Wonder,

but my favorite thing
is watching

the audience
watch Stevie Wonder.

-♪ When you believe in things
you don't understand ♪

♪ Then you suffer ♪

♪ Superstition ain't the way ♪

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

-Ellis said to me,
"They're canceling our series."

I said, "Why?"

He said, "Well, you know."

I said, "Ellis, tell me
what you've heard."

He said, "Well, during
these years,

we've had certain complaints
about angry Black poetry,

too much politics,

or how the music is filled
with dirty words,

and we've heard that stations
haven't aired the show.

They just take it off
'cause they think

the content's too Black."

I don't know how anything
can be too Black if it's a show

for Black people,
but never mind.

-♪ When all the dark clouds ♪

♪ Roll away ♪

I'm only interested in saying
the truth,

because nothing
could beat that,

so I'll ne-- if I say the truth
and it hurts,

I can't help that
because I have to say the truth.

-Again, it is a correct
interpretation of our history

to let them know, hey, brother,
you're no Afro-American.

Ain't no such thing.
You're an African.

And your society, your history
don't begin 400 years.

Your history begins millions
and millions

and millions
and millions of years ago!

While the white boy
was in the caves,

your fathers were
building pyramids.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa
is falling.

The Eiffel Tower is falling.

The Pyramids
are standing strong.

You built them, brother.
Get up and work.

You're a scientific people.
Build.

Build for your people.
Don't sit down.

There is nothing,
nothing we cannot do.

All we got to do, as the
Honorable Marcus Garvey said,

is get up and do it.

We're a mighty race: up now.

You're a mighty race.

-I just had images of Blacks
all around the country saying,

"Yes, yes, tell him!

Yes!"

and others plotting to get
the show off the air

because of just what
they suspected

was the response
of the Black community.

-I have never been aggressive

about the treatment that
"SOUL!" has received in the past

with regard to its being funded

and subsequently projected
to the public

as a positive and proud
production of Channel 13.

However, I am more
than concerned

about the turn of events.

-Ellis says, "Well, we better
start a campaign."

I said, "What kind of
a campaign?"

-We're trying to create
programs of Black love,

of Black strength,
of Black encouragement,

and we hope that you agree
with what's going down.

-Yes, sir!
-And if you do agree, write us.

If you don't agree, write us.

We just need to hear from you.

Our address is "SOUL!" --

304 West 58th Street,
New York City, 10019.

We need your help.

We need your support.

We need your love.

We need your disagreement.

We just need to hear from you.

-The letters started coming in.

They were fantastic,
thousands of letters

from all walks of life,
all kinds of people.

One guy said, "I'm not Black,

but that show has got it
as far as I'm concerned."

One young woman wrote in
and said,

"We have a big, expensive
television set in the home,

and it gets turned on
twice a week, for 'SOUL!'

and for 'SOUL!'s' rerun."

-We hope you will continue
supporting us

by writing to "SOUL!"
"SOUL!"

"SOUL!"
"SOUL!"

All you have to do
is simply write to us.

Simply write to "SOUL!"

-♪ I've got a dance,
ain't got no steps, no ♪

♪ I'm gonna let the music
move me around, yeah ♪

♪ I got a dance,
I ain't got no steps, no ♪

♪ I'm gonna let the music
move me around ♪

♪ Will it go around
in circles? ♪

♪♪

♪ Will it fly high
like a bird up in the sky? ♪

♪♪

-We interrupt this program
tonight with Billy Preston,

the Master's Child, to tell you
that a few weeks ago,

the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting announced

those programs
which would be included

in its funding cycle
for next season.

"SOUL!" was not.

I repeat, "SOUL!" was not
one of the programs

that the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting

said that they would
re-fund for next season.

-"SOUL!" and "Black Journal,"
both of which, at that point,

are produced out
of Channel 13 in New York

are both slated
for defunding,

which essentially
means canceled.

-Nixon got in, and he had
a very different idea

for Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.

It takes a turn ever so quickly.

-It's part of a policy
to destroy

all Black programming
on the network.

-Ellis Haizlip is
totally correct, you know,

when he tells "Jet" magazine

and when he tells
other journalists, like,

"This is about getting rid
of Blacks on television."

-I think there's
always somebody,

and sometimes there are
large numbers of them,

who are embarrassed or irritated

or frightened of programs
in which people,

Black, white, Hispanic,
or any other nationality,

say exactly what
they want to say,

so, sure, if Ellis said
that there were people

who want to get rid
of all Black programming

in the Nixon administration,

I'm sure there were some people
who wanted to do that.

♪♪

♪♪

-I have heard that somebody
at CPB said,

"We have conquered racism
in America,

so we don't need 'SOUL!'
anymore, or 'Black Journal'."

If anyone did say that,
they have to be prime idiots,

or they were shills
for President Nixon.

No one in their right mind
could think that racism was dead

after three
or four years of SOUL!

If it was, then that's
a pretty good result

for a television series.

-Ellis believed that there was
no need to embroil himself

and to be
in the rough-and-tumble

politics of the streets.

He was a noble.

He was a patrician.

He saw no need for it,
but there was something else.

I remember talking to him
and saying,

"Ellis, what the fuck
is wrong with you?

Why are you standing here?

We're missing a show
that is so important,

not only to you, Ellis, it's not
only to this generation,

it's to all of the generations
of Black people,

and by the way,
all the Puerto Ricans, too!

I have invested in this show.
I want to support it.

And I've gotten
together the Lords.

I've just spoken to a few of
the New York Panthers,

the Young Lords
are ready to do it,

of the SDS people
are ready to do it,

a lot of the liberals on campus
are ready to do it.

Let's move on PBS.

Let's move on Channel 13.

Ellis, what they're doing is
treating us like niggers,

and I refuse to be
treated like that,"

and I started screaming.

And he said, "Felipe,
I am not going to get involved

in the politics of the streets.

I'm just not going to do it."

I said, "Ellis, do you
understand what this means?

We're gonna lose the damn show!

This is a piece of history.
Let's fight for it!"

He said, "If they
don't understand

the importance of this show,
let it go."

♪♪

♪♪

-Janet --
Ellis's younger sister --

she and her husband
lived in Washington,

her two older children
were teenagers,

and then she had
a 5-year-old.

His name was John.

He was diagnosed with a rather
serious kidney disease.

♪♪

She and her husband
had relocated to Kansas City.

Kansas City didn't seem
to be a happy place for her.

It was her 40th birthday.

The older children
were at school

and her husband's at work.

In her despair,
Janet put the meal on the table

and went to the garage,
she and the 5-year-old.

Janet started the car
and shut up the garage

and ended their lives together.

♪♪

-That was a real...

serious, serious, serious matter
for everybody in the family

and especially for Ellis.

I think he felt
some sense of failure

for not having reached out
and understood the demons

that she was dealing with
in some way

that would have been helpful for
her other than her own suicide.

-I like to say that
tonight's program...

-♪ We were alone... ♪

-...I dedicate
to my mother and my father

and to the beloved memory
of my sister, Janet,

and her son John.

-♪ Singing this song to you ♪

♪♪

-Sometimes it's necessary

in the evolution
of things to disappear.

♪♪

-It's "SOUL!", and tonight,
"SOUL!" says

to the people, thank you.

[ Cheering and applause ]

-Thank you.
Thank you.

Tonight, I'm a little nervous

'cause "SOUL!", we spent
all our money this year,

we did a lot,
but we blew the budget.

So we're doing the show tonight
kind of live.

So just bear with us, we haven't
done that in a long while.

♪♪

Tonight, while we're doing
a lot of thank-yous,

we'd like to say
there are a lot of people

that you don't see
when we're taping "SOUL!",

unless we make a mistake
and show our cameraman

and then we have to pay him.

But...

-Ellis really wanted it
to end

you know, with a bang.

-Bless you.
This is dedicated all to you,

okay?

♪♪

-I have been very fortunate
in being received

in many homes
across the country,

and I thank you
for that opportunity

and that privilege
of being in your homes.

-It was a loss.

It actually...

left a hole --
a vacuum -- in our lives,

because where do you go...

-♪ I'll miss you, baby ♪

♪ Miss you,
miss you, miss you ♪

-...when you burn with a feeling
of rage...

And there's nowhere
to express it

that anyone will hear you?

-♪ I ain't been
doing nothing but ♪

-♪ Thinking, thinking,
thinking, thinking ♪

-♪ With my head in my hands ♪

♪ Been crying, oh ♪

-"SOUL!" taped its first program

on September the 8th, 1968.

We began the route
of documenting our own history

because we know
from what we see in the media,

from the response we've had
from the people,

that "SOUL!" will be included in
the television history

of this decade
when things go down.

-I just hated to see
the demise of "SOUL!"

simply for the reason that,
you know,

you knew that they were
not going to replace it.

-But because I hadn't seen
enough images of myself,

I watched.

Lo and behold, I saw
Wilson Pickett, The Last Poets,

was introduced
to Barbara Ann Teer,

Billy Preston, Stevie Wonder,
Nikki Giovanni,

Al Green, experienced Bill
Withers and Imamu Baraka,

and I'm not trying to say

that I won't ever see
Black people on TV

should some unaware group
of people take "SOUL!" off.

It's just that I won't see
Black people

creating, searching,
and acting,

instead of researching
and reacting.

There exists, as far as I know,

no TV program that deals
with my culture so completely,

so freely, and so beautifully.

There is no alternative
to "SOUL!"

-What Ellis did with "SOUL!"
was human transformation.

-And I hope he knew he was at
the beginning of this,

and that was the importance,
that he was there.

You know, he was saying, "This
is how you do this, sucker."

-Although it's over,
it's not the end.

Black seeds keep on growing.

There's been a dream of mine,
and it still is a dream of mine,

and that is that Black people
can come together

and can form a union of
coexisting in an artistic world

where everything
can be beautiful

and you can avoid a lot
of the discussions and hassle

because they understand.

Black authors and poets
trying to put it on paper,

trying hard, Black songwriters
and singers recording soulful,

gospel, jazz, rock.

It's there, and we know it.

-Keep hope alive!

♪♪

-I'm reclaiming my time.

-The House--
-Reclaiming my time.

Reclaiming my time.

-Yes, we are all
mirror-eyed people,

Black people, miracle people,
spiritual people, gifted people,

God-given people with mirror
eyes reflecting love and hate.

They're our hope, our lives,
our past, present, and future.

Our children and their children
all need yours, ours.

So let's give all these
beautiful people

who've given me all
these vibrations

a warm hand.

-We were just mind-blown.

Like, "Yo, this is every day."

To me, that was true
Black power right there.

Today, some 50 years later,
can you imagine what "SOUL!"

would have been like
for a 20-year run?

Like, how different
would our lives have been?

-This is Ellis Haizlip
saying good night.

[ Applause ]

♪♪

-♪ Do you know who you are ♪

♪ Where you come from
and what you possess? ♪

♪ You're so much more
than a star ♪

♪ There is power
in your greatness ♪

♪ Oh, don't you know
you are a god and a goddess ♪

♪ King and a queen
most high ♪

♪ You are alive, you are
the one, you've been chosen ♪

♪ Whole world is hoping,
now is the time ♪

♪ So... ♪
-♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Where is your soul?
Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul... ♪

-Service to others is the rent
we pay

for taking up space
on the planet.

-♪ Show me your soul ♪

Ellis served a whole nation.

So Ellis's rent
has been fully paid.

-But certainly, had we more
Ellis Haizlips today,

more men and women
of that fabric,

with that kind of gift,
with that kind of passion,

with that kind of quest
for truth,

I think, by and large,
America and the world

would be a better place
in which to reside.

You don't get an ending
better than that.

This is over.

♪♪

-♪ Soul! The unedited version
of pure thoughts ♪

♪ The beauty and conversations
involved ♪

♪ In Giovannis and Baldwins
in the midst of the dark ♪

♪ A weaponized media shooting
down the children of God ♪

♪ Soul is knowing
we are royalty ♪

♪ Normally mislabeled
as disorderly ♪

♪ Soul is imperial,
spiritual beings ♪

♪ We Black thieves made roses
out of the burial ♪

♪ Soul, to face a novella
to introduce ♪

♪ Black excellence and color
for better view ♪

♪ The renaissance and revolution
that's attached to my hue ♪

♪ When the movement
that'll never be moved ♪

♪ You can never cancel us ♪
-♪ Soul ♪

-♪ And if you try to cancel
the soul you'll find that ♪

♪ There's nothing but evolution
in my soul ♪

-♪ Show me your soul
-Oh ♪

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Show me your soul ♪

-♪ Show me your soul,
show me your soul ♪

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Show it to me ♪
-♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Show me your soul ♪
-♪ Hey-yeah ♪

-♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Show me your soul ♪

Although it's over...
"SOUL!" "SOUL!"...

[ Echoing ]
It's not the end.

Black seeds
keep on growing.

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

-There is no alternative
to "SOUL!"

[ Echoing ]
"SOUL!" "SOUL!" "SOUL!"

-♪ Do you know
who you are? ♪

♪ Ohhhh ♪

-Although it's over,
it's not the end.

Black seeds
keep on growing.

There is no alternative
to "SOUL!"

-♪ Hey ♪
-♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Show me your soul ♪

-♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪
-♪ Ain't no substitute ♪

♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

-♪ Show me your soul ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

-♪ I wanna see your soul ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

-♪ My brotha ♪
-♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪ Show me your soul ♪

♪ Show me your soul,
where is your soul? ♪

♪ Where is your soul,
show me your soul ♪

[ Vocalizing ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Where is your soul? ♪

♪♪

♪ Soul ♪