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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 ♪