How Ellis Haizlip showed the complexity of Black culture on the 70s-era TV show ‘SOUL!’
Dec. 24, 2020Hollywood MORE The J.C. White Choir just after their performance on “SOUL!,” in a scene from the film “Mr. SOUL!” Photo by Alex Harsley, courtesy of Shoes in the Bed Productions.
Once upon a time in America, there was a TV talk show that was unapologetically Black. Guests were writer James Baldwin, poet Amiri Baraka, religious leader and activist Louis Farrakhan. Musicians like Earth Wind and Fire and Patti LaBelle performed.
It was 1968. There were platform shoes and big afros and a perspective that existed nowhere else on TV. The show was made by Black people for Black people. It was called “SOUL!”