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00:00:04Place your hands on the television set in your homes.
00:00:08You might feel some of the vibrations that we are attempting to send out tonight.
00:00:13Ellis came at a time when there were so few positive African-American images on television.
00:00:19Soho was giving a voice to activists.
00:00:22There's nothing, nothing we cannot do.
00:00:24That on national TV is revolutionary.
00:00:27There exists, as far as I know, no TV program that deals with my culture so completely, so freely.
00:00:33Mr. Soul, now only on Independent Lens.
00:00:49Today whites have every hour on television available to them.
00:00:55The blacks have none.
00:01:02The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC.
00:01:11This is an ABC color presentation.
00:01:21CBS presents this program in color.
00:01:26The traffic we set.
00:01:26The light is changing.
00:01:45Have a beautiful atmosphere.
00:01:48The lights running.
00:01:49The lights running.
00:01:49There's nothing We need to do.
00:01:51The genius lives running things.
00:01:52In the trash.
00:01:52Those kelัััes are standing too.
00:01:52But I turn the tits in to our clothes.
00:01:52To the Sign bet.
00:01:59This is N.E.T., the public television network.
00:02:25I'm so tired of being alone, I'm so tired of being alone, don't you help me and go so that
00:02:35you can.
00:02:38Sometimes I wonder, baby, if you love me like you say you do, I ain't thinking about it yet.
00:02:53And I've been trying next to you, sometime after four months, and I say, I call your name, yeah, I
00:03:02call your name, baby.
00:03:06You're everything to me, you're everything to me, you're everything to me, you're everything to me.
00:03:13Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:03:31All of you know that your attack dollar and mine is helping to pay for the maintenance of segregation.
00:03:37This money is given to keep you and I second-class citizens here in this great country.
00:03:42Although we are not integration, that doesn't mean that we in any way condone what those crackers are doing in
00:03:49Birmingham, Alabama.
00:03:51It was only after the Negroes began to strike back, it was then that Kennedy called Indiana.
00:03:58Everything's all right.
00:04:00We had a richness of black voices speaking to the problems of our time.
00:04:06This is the fruit of what Martin Luther King and the protest movement had done.
00:04:11They had awakened a generation.
00:04:14If you don't want any trouble, keep your filthy white hands off our beautiful...
00:04:23It just seemed like this was not just foolish, racist, and this was some kind of attack.
00:04:28You're gonna kill the President of the United States, you're gonna kill Malcolm X, they killed Bobby Kennedy, and they
00:04:33killed Martin Luther King.
00:04:35So that whole period was an assault on any kind of progressive face of America.
00:04:40We are determined to raise our people to their traditional greatness.
00:04:44The black community is very conscious of how it is being oppressed, and it means to change that.
00:04:49We needed to reimagine ourselves on this American landscape.
00:04:55Somebody had to be first.
00:04:59And it was Ellis Hayes.
00:05:14Ellis, to me, was like the first citizen of New York, in that New York was absolutely his city.
00:05:24I met Ellis in New York in the summer of 64, and we became friends.
00:05:30He was doing real art.
00:05:31He was producing dance.
00:05:33He knew Donnie McHale.
00:05:34And that's where I got to know him and do Black New World tour in Europe.
00:05:39He knew Alvin Ailey.
00:05:40He was producing James Baldwin's plays in Europe.
00:05:45I knew that television had a place for his thinking and his artistry.
00:05:50I got the Boston Station and I got the Pittsburgh Station and the New York Station to do an interconnect
00:05:55called Talking Black on arts in the black communities.
00:05:59So by now, Ellis had done two shows, and I think he was really primed to do something big.
00:06:04From the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Broadway.
00:06:08Ellis came at a time when there were so few African-American images on television,
00:06:16and certainly so few positive African-American images on television.
00:06:22I'm a Negro.
00:06:23Have you always been a Negro? You're just trying to be fashionable.
00:06:28When Black folks appeared in the news, it was as a problem.
00:06:33The violent crime rate is up 71%.
00:06:36Media had been weaponized to argue for the inhumanity of African-Americans.
00:06:41If you sit here in the central ward of Newark in the Negro ghetto.
00:06:45This tool was used from its very inception to denigrate human life as much as it could liberate it.
00:06:53By then, there was an occasional mainstream breakthrough when people like Nat King Cole and Harry Belafonte were given variety
00:07:01shows on national television.
00:07:03But they didn't last very long.
00:07:06Harry Belafonte would dance with the white actors on screen, and the people in the South would go crazy, and
00:07:10so they dropped the show.
00:07:12The period was filled with great upheaval.
00:07:16It was an upheaval that was necessary.
00:07:20Cities across the country were erupting.
00:07:23There were riots in Los Angeles, in Detroit, in Newark.
00:07:27There were riots popping up all over the place.
00:07:29There was a commission that was impaneled, the Kerner Commission, to investigate why this uprising had happened.
00:07:37The Kerner Commission report in March of 68 said we are drifting towards two nations, one black and one white.
00:07:46And the media is largely responsible for this.
00:07:49One of the findings of the Kerner Commission was the sense that African-Americans, black people, had no voice in
00:07:57broad media.
00:07:59That led to the impetus to say, why don't we use educational TV to make sure that those voices that
00:08:06had not had access could present their stories, specifically African-Americans.
00:08:12Produced in New York by WNDT.
00:08:16A number of programs were created for public television.
00:08:21Black Journal, which was a program that came out of New York, was a documentary program.
00:08:25There were programs like Save Brother that came out of WGBH in Boston.
00:08:31Shows like Like It Is were public affairs shows.
00:08:36Hello, I'm Jim Lowry.
00:08:37And I'm Roxy Roker.
00:08:39Welcome to Inside Bedford Stuyvesant.
00:08:42Public television, which had been called educational television, was less comfortable with live performance as a way of serving its
00:08:51public, the way that educational TV imagined service, and also imagined its public.
00:08:56This is NET, the National Educational Television Network.
00:09:02Even though I had known this, I said, we don't have a single person of color on our staff producing
00:09:10anything.
00:09:11We've got to do something about that.
00:09:13When I realized that Ellis was beginning to like television and understood how it could get his message across, I
00:09:20said, look, what do we see on television?
00:09:23We see riots, we see poverty, we see cameras going through Harlem showing how the garbage isn't picked up.
00:09:31I don't hear that from you.
00:09:33What I hear is how lively the renaissance of the arts are in black communities around the country.
00:09:39Ellis wanted to legitimate all of the variety of expression in the arts, in particular, in the black community.
00:09:50And that's not the Tonight Show or, you know, that's not the format.
00:09:54I think I came up with the idea of a black Tonight Show on my own before I even talked
00:09:59to Ellis.
00:09:59And Ellis said, uh-uh. If we're going to do something for the New York black community, it's got to
00:10:06be a lot deeper, jazzier, even more controversial.
00:10:10We want black power! We want black power!
00:10:14So we wrote up a proposal for the Ford Foundation, and we got money very quickly.
00:10:19Ellis said, what are we going to call this show?
00:10:21I said, got any ideas, fellows?
00:10:24He said, what about Soul?
00:10:25I said, yeah, if you put an exclamation point after it.
00:10:32I never forget when the show started and you'd strike up the band.
00:10:36It's this, wow, you know, live and in color, the Soul show.
00:10:43Live and in color from New York City, Soul welcome!
00:10:50And now the very first musical performance of our show, Sarah Dash, Nona Hendrix, Patricia Hope, also known as Patti
00:11:00LaBelle and the Blue Bears.
00:11:06Somewhere over the rainbow
00:11:15Where, where, where, where?
00:11:22We look at the first show.
00:11:24Essentially, we got stars and future stars.
00:11:27Patti LaBelle and the Blue Bells.
00:11:29Yes, they'd been around, but not on television.
00:11:34Why, oh, why?
00:11:59The first show was, it was, I don't know how to explain it, the air was electric.
00:12:04Let me tell you one and all
00:12:07We were all very excited
00:12:09Because we knew it was something new and special
00:12:11The very first show starts
00:12:14And Novella Nelson's face
00:12:16Is the face of the introductory sequence
00:12:18To this hole in the wall
00:12:20Ellison would bring in people
00:12:22Who he had seen or heard or knew
00:12:24Novella Nelson who had never been on television
00:12:26It would be heaven for a cat
00:12:30A cold water flag
00:12:38And then there was Billy Taylor
00:12:40Who was known in the jazz world
00:12:42But not in the television world
00:12:43We were so excited about someone
00:12:46Who at last was beginning to do something
00:12:48That really wasn't done
00:12:50Often enough for us
00:12:52On radio and television
00:12:53And helping people understand
00:12:55What black music was about
00:12:56Ellis did that very well
00:12:58And the moment that went on that television
00:13:01It was like boom
00:13:02You know
00:13:02We're bad
00:13:03Ain't we bad
00:13:04Yeah
00:13:04You walk down
00:13:05You walk down the street
00:13:06And you were dripping bad
00:13:07You know
00:13:10Very quickly
00:13:11The word got out about this show
00:13:14Just seemed to spread like lightning
00:13:16Across the country
00:13:16That there was this true black show
00:13:18True to the black experience
00:13:20No subjects were taboo
00:13:23Provided you could put them in decent language
00:13:25And that it was our show
00:13:28With this black priority
00:13:31We don't have to become a multi-purpose program
00:13:34Black people turn us on every week
00:13:36Because they know they will see an undiluted black show
00:13:42Dr. Passant was the psychiatrist from Boston
00:13:45We had brought in to host the show
00:13:47Ellis asked me if I would be host
00:13:50I mean I wasn't in show business
00:13:52But the show would open
00:13:53And I had to walk out
00:13:55Like I was doing the tonight show
00:13:57Well we had a co-host
00:13:58Loretta Law
00:13:59I'd done a few commercials
00:14:01But television was never an option for me
00:14:04Because I didn't want to be Beulah
00:14:06I didn't want to be a maid
00:14:09The Beulah Show
00:14:10Don't let nobody tell you
00:14:11That I'm in the market for a husband
00:14:13Of course I would be
00:14:15But they don't sell husbands in the market
00:14:18I think Dr. Passant was even more nervous
00:14:21Than I was
00:14:23I think he did three shows
00:14:25And then we asked him
00:14:26As politely as we could
00:14:27To step down
00:14:28Who are we going to find?
00:14:30So Ellis had a cousin
00:14:32Harold who was the head of a school in New York
00:14:35I was the headmaster of the New Lincoln School
00:14:38A private pre-kindergarten through 12 school
00:14:41Ellis said he wanted me to do the show
00:14:43So I was moving along in my day job
00:14:45Often dressed with my blazer
00:14:47And sometimes a bowtie
00:14:49And then when it was time to do the show
00:14:52My hair came out a bit with my blowcomb
00:14:55It came out
00:14:56It looked like Moses
00:14:57Sort of, you know
00:14:58Hair out to here and around
00:14:59Down to my shoulders
00:15:00Shirt open
00:15:02Chains
00:15:03Polyester suits
00:15:04Heel
00:15:05Tiptoeing out of our West End Avenue apartment
00:15:08Going to do the show
00:15:09Down at Channel 13
00:15:10And I thought, my god
00:15:12What if one of my board members
00:15:14See, I, my nightmare was
00:15:16Some little smartass kid
00:15:18Would walk up to me and say
00:15:19Is that you, Dr. Hazliff?
00:15:21Oh
00:15:24Harold was good
00:15:25But at the end of two weeks he was gone
00:15:29And I said to Ellis
00:15:30Are you interviewing people?
00:15:31He said I'm going to do it
00:15:32I'm Ellis Hazliff
00:15:33I'm Ellis Hazliff
00:15:34Good evening
00:15:35I'm Ellis Hazliff
00:15:36It's a producer soul
00:15:37I'm Ellis Hazliff
00:15:38And we are happy to have you with us this evening
00:15:40We're doing our first live show tonight
00:15:43And, you know, we hope you'll kind of bear with us
00:15:45We can go up or we can go down
00:15:47But we hope it runs evenly
00:15:49Tonight
00:15:49And there was Ellis
00:15:50About as bad an interviewer as you can possibly imagine
00:15:54His strongest comment would be right on
00:15:56Which hosts aren't supposed to do
00:15:58What are they going to do for us now?
00:16:00Um, the poets are going to do now
00:16:02A piece they call Die Nigger
00:16:05Very good
00:16:06All right
00:16:08Very good
00:16:09So we have the black
00:16:10The last poets now
00:16:12Doing Die Nigger
00:16:13They're doing Waking Water
00:16:15Ah
00:16:16First goof on live television
00:16:18We didn't even do it
00:16:20We didn't even do it
00:16:20We didn't do it
00:16:21That's me, co-producer
00:16:24First goof
00:16:24Waking Water
00:16:25We are as proud of our militants
00:16:29As we are of the religious element
00:16:31And the soul show will reflect that pride
00:16:34The last poets are going to do a piece for us now
00:16:38And I can only beg that everyone can accept it
00:16:42In the spirit that it's delivered
00:16:43It's called Die Nigger
00:16:45The last poet in Die Nigger
00:16:48Niggas Watch Mega Ever Die
00:16:50Niggas Watch Emmett Till Die
00:16:53Niggas Watch Bobby Hutton Die
00:16:55Niggas Watch Jane Chaney Die
00:16:58Niggas Watch Niggas Die
00:17:02Niggas Die
00:17:03Niggas Die
00:17:04Niggas Die
00:17:04Niggas Die
00:17:05Niggas Die
00:17:05Niggas Die
00:17:05Die Niggas Die
00:17:08So black folks can take over
00:17:14Yeah, I thought it was pretty risky
00:17:17These are guys that never would have been hurt by anyone
00:17:21If Ellis hadn't been brave enough to do it
00:17:24And I gotta tell you, I was glad I was teaching school
00:17:28Because I figured we were done
00:17:31Stick a fork in it, we're done
00:17:33There is just no way that any other station would have touched that
00:17:37That was important
00:17:39Because we knew that you can't just say, I'm black and go with that
00:17:45You gotta do something
00:17:46You gotta show how black you are about your actions
00:17:50Cause we had like, at least six nigga poems
00:17:52We had Die Niggas and then we had Niggas are Scared of Revolution
00:17:55Niggas are Scared of Revolution
00:17:58So we were definitely on trying to deniggarize our people
00:18:02Quite a statement, you know
00:18:04When I was listening to the last poets and that
00:18:07I kept watching Barbara and Loretta
00:18:09What were you feeling when I was going on?
00:18:12I was thinking it's about time I hear something besides
00:18:14Blondes have more fun
00:18:18Ellis found a vehicle for himself in the arts
00:18:21At Howard University in Washington
00:18:24He found himself in the theatre
00:18:27He didn't come there as a theatre person
00:18:29The Howard Players created a place where they trained actors and technicians
00:18:34They brought in the theatre of the world
00:18:38The Howard had great shows and the finest artists in the world
00:18:42I never missed Louis Jordan and his timpani five
00:18:45Then we went to the Elks Hall and there were recitations
00:18:49Langston Hughes' poetry and Paul Lawrence Dunbar
00:18:53We just, we had the best of everything
00:18:56If you're not thinking about money
00:19:02Ellis began going to New York
00:19:04He would go to see a show or whatever
00:19:07And he would stay for three, four, five days
00:19:11Ellis had some early credits as a producer
00:19:14And was gaining support for his vision
00:19:20The theatre thing was going to be the stage on which Ellis' life would bloom
00:19:30I met Ellis in the summer of 63
00:19:34He was the stage manager of a James Weldon Johnson production of Trumpets of the Lord
00:19:40Ellis told me that he and a friend wanted to produce The Amen Corner
00:19:45In the context of a European tour
00:19:48While I lived on Sheridan Square
00:19:50And Ellis would come up frequently in the evenings
00:19:53I was also meeting with James Baldwin from time to time
00:19:56Jimmy and Ellis didn't perhaps get along terribly well at first
00:20:00Because they both were extreme personalities
00:20:05But once they started working together on The Amen Corner
00:20:09They got along very well and worked together very well
00:20:12Jimmy was very pleased with Ellis' ideas
00:20:15They became close friends during the tour
00:20:25I often wonder, how does he know all these people?
00:20:28And they knew him, and they loved him
00:20:31And it wasn't so much what he would do for them
00:20:34As the relationship that he had developed with them, which they treasured
00:20:41Ellis had this black book, thick notebook
00:20:44And he'd open up that book and magic would come out of it
00:20:47Do you have any joy, any particular joy that overrides any other in anything that you've done to him?
00:20:53No, the best book, a writer's best book is his next book
00:20:58You know, I mean that I'm not joking
00:21:01Hey, we're running short, what are you going to do about the audience?
00:21:03The first season of 39 shows, they were all live
00:21:06So, no one knew what was going to be on them, except Ellis and his staff
00:21:10Yeah, nobody loved me
00:21:13Nobody seemed to care
00:21:15Make enough words that come to us
00:21:18You'd know if I had lunch here
00:21:24The FCC couldn't stop you, no one could interrupt, there was no seven-second delay
00:21:29You could do anything you wanted
00:21:31I think one of the most beautiful things is that there's a unity among us all
00:21:36Because we're all black, and that kind of soul and that device goes together
00:21:40Do you agree, Mary?
00:21:41Oh yes, I agree
00:21:42My recollection of the first year is cemented forever with Wilson Pickett and Marian Williams
00:21:51In the last show of the year, together
00:21:53Oh happy day, oh happy day, oh happy day, oh happy day
00:21:59It was the most glorious thing, and Odetta was in the audience
00:22:03No one had known it until then, and she gets up and she starts dancing
00:22:06The whole audience is dancing
00:22:22My fellow Americans, I ask you to share with me today the majesty of this moment
00:22:32Nixon becomes president in 1969 and the Nixon administration is quite paranoid about the ways that it is covered by
00:22:40the media
00:22:40What kind of a nation we will be is ours is to determine
00:22:46I know the heart of America is good
00:22:52Nixon sees the media as a liberal force opposed to the president's policies and administration
00:22:58Soul is broadcasting in a moment when there is, from the highest levels, hostility to liberal political expression on television
00:23:09We've actually presented black poets from the very beginning of Soul
00:23:13And that has been revolutionary
00:23:15Just name one other consistent TV outlet for those black poets who have been playing such a major role in
00:23:23helping black people deal with today's reality
00:23:28Ever been kidnapped by a poet?
00:23:30If I were a poet, I'd kidnap you
00:23:32Put you in my phrases and meter you to Jones Beach
00:23:35Or maybe Coney Island, or maybe just to my house
00:23:38Lyric you in lilacs, dash you in the rain
00:23:40Blend into the beach to compliment my sea
00:23:43Play the lyre for you, old you with my love song
00:23:46Anything to win you, wrap you in the red, black, green
00:23:49Show you off to mama, yeah
00:23:51If I were a poet, I'd kidnap you
00:23:53Hi
00:23:55This was all emerging
00:23:57It was a new world
00:23:59And Ellis was a gardener
00:24:01And he cultivated all of these people
00:24:05That's where the genius of Ellis, I think, was most apparent
00:24:08He had an eye for people who were absolutely bound to be successful in this country
00:24:15And who had not yet been discovered
00:24:16But Ellis had seen them, had witnessed them, had experienced them
00:24:20And put them right there in front
00:24:23Finally we're going to get a chance to sing our own songs
00:24:27And we're going to do this particular number
00:24:48When we first met Ellis Hayslip, we were young, we were babies
00:24:53But he saw something in us
00:24:54He knew we were songwriters
00:24:56And he said, I want you to come on the show
00:24:59And I want you to illustrate some of your songs
00:25:01And I want you to
00:25:02Because we weren't performers at all
00:25:04Definitely not me
00:25:05We were, like, so nervous
00:25:07Because it was, like, brand new to us
00:25:08And all the planning
00:25:09And how we picked the singers from the church
00:25:11And we got the musicians together
00:25:15Because we tried to kill it
00:25:16Reach out and touch somebody's hand
00:25:21Make this world a better place
00:25:25If you can
00:25:26Reach out and touch somebody's hand
00:25:32Make this world a better place
00:25:35If you can
00:25:37Just try
00:25:41I don't know where we would be
00:25:42If it weren't for Ellis Hayslip
00:25:44I mean
00:25:44There would not be an Ashford and Simpson
00:25:46Without Soul
00:25:47He loved our music
00:25:48And he said, it's going to be on Soul
00:25:50And that's what was so beautiful about
00:25:52The way he respected our music
00:25:54And what he saw in us
00:25:56That we hadn't yet seen in ourselves
00:26:07He could see you in places
00:26:09That you couldn't see yourself
00:26:10And Ellis was the race man in a way
00:26:13That was the old term
00:26:14Not that he had any disdain for other races
00:26:17But that he was a strong supporter
00:26:20Of what we could do
00:26:21And seeing to it that our story
00:26:24Was being told by our people
00:26:25That's what he did in Soul
00:26:27He brought out the people
00:26:28Who could tell the story
00:26:29As artists
00:26:30Hello, I'm Ellis Hazlip
00:26:33The producer of Soul
00:26:34And we're very happy to have
00:26:36Imamu Amiri Baraka
00:26:37He is one of the leading black voices
00:26:39Of this time
00:26:40It's nation time
00:26:55it became clear to me that it was time that we speak directly to what was going on rather than
00:27:00bite our tongue or seem diplomatic that it was time to say all this stuff is wrong and you need
00:27:06to stop it are we gonna stop you and it was a whole group of people young people getting
00:27:12inflamed by the movement reaching new heights that was the whole rise of the black arts movement
00:27:17in Harlem we said we wanted an art that was culturally black we wanted the art of not just
00:27:23to titillate the minds of the elite we wanted the art that will contribute to the liberation of
00:27:29black people get up it's nation time that poem became kind of an anthemic pronouncement of national
00:27:41consciousness really asking it's time for us to think specifically about black people as a nation
00:27:47of people the death of Malcolm X in many ways propelled the black arts movement Malcolm had
00:27:56left the nation of Islam and was forming a lot of coalitions really looking much more globally
00:28:02and connecting the struggle here with struggles for independence abroad and the black arts movement
00:28:08was a way of popularizing the ideas of blackness and really exploring those ideas and trying to
00:28:15define what it meant to be black in this country what it meant to be black on this planet the
00:28:23primary
00:28:23purpose of soul is neither to educate nor to entertain but to give people a chance to share in the
00:28:32black
00:28:32experience the show must do that first then it can educate entertain soul makes blacks visible in a
00:28:42society where they have been largely invisible I think I can suggest to you that if you would place your
00:28:53hands on the television set in your homes you might feel some of the vibrations that we are attempting to
00:28:59send out tonight I hope you'll be able to deal with it because it will be beautiful so why don't
00:29:06we get
00:29:06together and have a warm reception as we welcome again to soul miss Barbara and T my mom Dr. Barbara
00:29:14and
00:29:14here she thought that theater was a means to galvanize folks that day on soul was our own church for
00:29:23us by us restorative
00:29:25in all form just relax and groove with your blackness it was an incredible sight to invite people into this
00:29:37a
00:29:37complete and utter love affair with your blackness and there were the most beautiful black folks in the audience
00:29:45sitting forward in their seats holding incense reaching out to one another and I think that level of black care
00:29:54black love black sister and brotherhood was something that in and of itself on national TV was revolutionary
00:30:05thank God he found that outlet that allowed channel 13 to show us in all our beauty and all our
00:30:11eccentricity
00:30:12all of our opulence and grandeur you know and so the rest of the world could see what you know
00:30:16what what
00:30:17what who are these people who have been burdened by so much and yet singing and carry on and got
00:30:23flair and got style
00:30:25I should have let you fall
00:30:28go like a diamond
00:30:31when she treats you like black
00:30:34get you back cause I love you
00:30:37but she is your man
00:30:40if I were your woman
00:30:42if you were my woman
00:30:43if I were your woman
00:30:45if you were my woman
00:30:47if I were your woman
00:30:48if you were my woman
00:30:50if you're my woman
00:30:50if I knew what you do
00:30:53like you never
00:30:56no, no, stop loving you
00:30:59there were so many women in his life
00:31:02he loved
00:31:03their energy and creativity
00:31:05and art
00:31:06Ellis Hayes Lipp understood
00:31:08that it was just an assumption
00:31:10that there were interesting women
00:31:12doing interesting things
00:31:13and he had Toni Morrison
00:31:15when she had just published her first novel
00:31:17he provided incredible opportunities
00:31:19for black women professionally at all levels he had a mostly female production staff i don't know
00:31:25if national tv shows have that we had to put black women back on a stage but the whole movement
00:31:32was
00:31:32sexist the nwhcp was sexist the movement that martin led was sexist everything was sexist make
00:31:38no mistake about it america was homophobic and sexist it wasn't just the black arts and the
00:31:46thing that we did as women is that we began to break it down it's soul and this is your
00:31:52announcer
00:31:52gary brunner tonight on soul we get a little closer to the sisters as soul salutes the black woman
00:31:59i don't think poetry existed actively i mean there was the beat generation but on television ever
00:32:08not ever until so where you could have a show that was just dedicated to poets
00:32:15brother ellis was going to bring black women to the forefront
00:32:22take my shift soul food i do not wish to taste a pig of either gut or grunt from bowel
00:32:29or jaw
00:32:31i want caviar shrimp souffle sherry champagne and not because these are the whites domains
00:32:41but because i'm entitled for i've been vd'd enough tb'd enough whole cake fit not neat enough
00:32:50spindly leg bloodhound treat enough to eat high on the hog you know i really do think that brother ellis
00:32:57did more for poetry on television more than any other show on television yesterday today
00:33:07and probably tomorrow black lovers must live push against the devils of this world against the creeping
00:33:16blackness of their own minds i am your woman my man and black women they deal in babies
00:33:27and sweet black kisses and nights that multiply by twos what he was doing was simply changing every
00:33:40night he was on that program changing someone's mind about black folks about black culture about what
00:33:50it meant to be black in america right and what people young people were doing in america to affect
00:33:56change but he was also wise enough to know that he was changing white folks too
00:34:21to be on so with such extraordinary women celebrating black women
00:34:29in america was one of the great honors of my life
00:34:43when sister carmen danced
00:34:47time stopped in that studio
00:34:50she came out and she danced and you close your eyes and you lean back on your eyes and you
00:34:56could see
00:34:57her moving inside your bloodstream this piece comes sunday it's absolutely one of my favorites
00:35:04it was choreographed by my husband jeffrey holder just in honor of odetta because we loved her so much
00:35:16you know if it touches your soul you can dance
00:35:22you can dance and dance and dance and dance and dance and dance and dance and dance and dance
00:35:39ellis grew up in washington there were four children doris ellis janet and lionel hazlet
00:35:49seems like they had a very idyllic childhood and ellis was always the center of attention
00:35:56ellis would put on dramatic productions with the neighborhood children in their yard at the house
00:36:03on sheriff road he was the performer the leader the producer the one with the ideas and the creativity
00:36:13my mother died when i was 17 years old it was a great tragedy in my life but i often
00:36:22remember her voice
00:36:23calling come on children let's have hot milk cake before dinner and there she'd be stirring up this
00:36:32little batter all of us around the kitchen table together at the end of a tired day
00:36:42after ellis's mother died my mother became almost a surrogate for ellis
00:36:49his father was very very very religious and very closed in there were strictures that were to be
00:36:56be observed in terms of appropriate dress and you didn't dance well that was just not ell
00:37:06i'm at our house rather than his own i came to know that ellis was different
00:37:13the term gay was not in vogue at that time you know you were effeminate or you know you had
00:37:19these
00:37:19different interests you were just different and but nobody talked about the coded word from uncle
00:37:26ellis's father was boy you need to get serious and get a job you should not let the spirit that's
00:37:33coming out of you you should not let it come forward and i knew that's what he meant i didn't
00:37:38know that he
00:37:39was saying you can't be gay you can't be a sissy you can't be feminine you need to be you
00:37:47need to exhibit
00:37:48masculine characteristics that really hurt me a lot because
00:38:02even then i knew that ellis was a very special person and that he needed
00:38:08a nourishing environment rather than a critical one
00:38:23that he needed to be a very special person and that he needed to be a very special person
00:38:23would you look at that
00:38:27this is it
00:38:30i'd almost like to put my arms around it and say yeah this is it
00:38:35this was us this is where ellis started his life on this planet
00:38:41ellis had an appreciation for black performance that i think was shaped by his experience in the
00:38:49church there is a basic spirituality that perhaps surfaces in the choice of soul gospel music and the
00:38:59spirituals and the uh the poetry and the presentation of the church ellis was steeped in that
00:39:07i've got his hands on me thank you lord thank you you lord thank you for touching me lord thank
00:39:15you lord
00:39:36my religion is the gospel song rather than the gospel
00:40:00i want to do my poetry without
00:40:10because i'm black american i grew up in the baptist church so i wanted to do something with that
00:40:16music that's the music in my head and ellis knew vinnie diggs then he lived in harlem so we went
00:40:22up
00:40:22and met the choir and i think everybody was nervous and he said must jesus bear the cross alone and
00:40:28somebody said yeah i said yeah let jesus and i thought i love this choir
00:40:54i mean who would have thought that you could make gospel music with modern poetry and that it would be
00:41:01something that people could actually listen to lord we need help tonight in the beginning
00:41:08was the word and the word was death and the word was nigger and the word was death to all
00:41:13niggers and the word was
00:41:15death to all peace be still noah packing his wife and kitties up for a holiday roll roll roll your
00:41:24boat but why'd you leave the unicorns noah huh why'd you leave them while our black madonna stood there 18
00:41:31feet high listening to the rumblings of peace be still
00:41:35peace because of the new york community choir because it was gospel choir we got playing on
00:41:42gospel radio but because it was me we got playing on normal radio it wasn't called the spoken word
00:41:49then if it had been spoken word i would have a grammy see somebody owes me a grammy he wanted
00:41:55to present
00:41:56those wonderful poets nikki giovanni and mayangelo but dance was one of his main thrusts and he was
00:42:04so in tune with dance he was quietly taking care of the business that would then make you look great
00:42:13that was the beginning of a long relationship with dance and camera ellis and san called me and said can
00:42:22you do something because we want a little dance in you and i so i got two dancers that was
00:42:30gary deloach
00:42:31and eleanor mccoy to come down to the studio unrehearsed and we did it on the spot and he
00:42:39used it in a segment of that dance involved romantic turns and lifts and so forth that would be used
00:42:47in
00:42:47interlude stevie wonder's song in my mind you know that you'll stay here always
00:42:59soul was one of the only shows that presented black dance and ellis was certainly very aware of the
00:43:06emerging as well as the seasoned choreographers you and i you and i
00:43:33you and i you and i you and i
00:44:10you've had such a success at uh what i consider very early
00:44:15age first maybe you ought to tell the audience how old you are is that cool 25 25 25 how
00:44:24long
00:44:24have you been singing i've been singing um uh since i was about um eight or nine loving you baby
00:44:37ah see they don't want to mess with that dude here is al green singing about relationships
00:44:50so they would cut away to sisters in the audience you could just see what was going on behind their
00:44:59eyes
00:45:06ah i'm so in love with you thank you whatever you want to do
00:45:17is all right with me thank you oh because you make me feel
00:45:27ellis hayeslip's ability to really make everything cohesive i mean it was so much great visual style
00:45:42to the show
00:45:45that just didn't exist anywhere else in media at the time like when al green is singing that backdrop
00:45:51this multi-colored abstract expressionist looked like something off star trek it was kind of
00:45:57glowing lights were going on and off but then there's also these shots they did from just the
00:46:02back of the room where it's just a sea of afros like a city of just big bulbous afros and
00:46:10you think
00:46:11about the afro being the ultimate kind of statement of follicle military right
00:46:19ellis already knew that black culture was world culture
00:46:32ellis already knew that black culture led didn't pull
00:46:39that program was so beyond its time that it was in time
00:47:09it was a product of his own creation
00:47:14unlike other so-called variety shows ellis hayeslip was an important personality but he was not at the
00:47:20center even as a charismatic and beloved figure the show is not about him the way that tonight's
00:47:26show with johnny carson was about johnny carson he was one of the great listeners no one had to brief
00:47:32him on what needed to be asked no one had to brief him on what was going to go on
00:47:36in a sense he was the
00:47:37perfect host i feel that r b music forms the floor for black pride
00:47:52cool the game was on soul and ellis hastings he was the smoothest guy that we had met at the
00:47:58time
00:47:59that was our first television show and that gave us a whole lot of exposure
00:48:03we played who's going to take the weight and chocolate buttermilk that was a favorite at the
00:48:09time yeah we had those crazy outfits all of that kind of dress it was important to look your best
00:48:14on tv
00:48:27we had our hairstyle by the stylist at that time her name was diane
00:48:32it was the most perfect afro cut i have ever had in my life when we looked at each other
00:48:40it was
00:48:41like wow who's that ellis had a wonderful hairdresser diane she did all our hair you know
00:48:49at that time we were all wearing meticulous afros the whole 70s was just the time to boogie
00:48:56it was the time to get down so we did it it was about soul and not soul train it's
00:49:06the soul in the
00:49:08midst of all of this ellis got me into tv he was the first person who allowed me to produce
00:49:13my own
00:49:13show on television and it was a hit no one had ever given me the opportunity to do my talent
00:49:20no one had
00:49:20ever done that driving latin rhythms coming out of candy store jukeboxes trumpets trumpets trumpets
00:49:29big brass mashed with sultry conga sprouts palm trees in the middle of frozen streets rhythms rhythms
00:49:35rhythms counter rhythms poly rhythms what do you want to see what do you want to see it worked out
00:49:40very well and i end i end the segment by saying brothers and sisters i have great pleasure in
00:50:14introducing you tonight
00:50:15varieties of the black and brown extremes
00:50:21ellis was always looking for the edge and the conversations that he had between writers and poets
00:50:31ellis said if you could do anything what would you like to do and i said that's too easy love
00:50:36to talk to
00:50:36jimmy baldwin he said i know jimmy well baldwin said to ellis you know i'd love to do it but
00:50:41i don't
00:50:41have time to come to the united states and ellis said how about london here was james baldwin on
00:50:48national television in a two-hour special being interviewed by nikki giovanni and here was baldwin
00:50:57the homosexual poet you know those two words you mention them in the commercial stations and people
00:51:05go running from the room here was this icon of american literature forget black literature of
00:51:12american literature being interviewed by an iconic poet when our game starts running and after all
00:51:19after all baby we have survived the roughest game in the history of the world yeah you know we really
00:51:25have no matter what we say against ourselves you know no matter what our limits and hang-ups are you
00:51:31know we have come through some we have come through something you know and if we can get this far
00:51:36we
00:51:36can get further you know and we got this far by by means which no one understands including you and
00:51:41me
00:51:42we're only being done we're only beginning to apprehend it and you're a poet precisely because
00:51:46you are beginning to apprehend it and put it into into a form you know which will be useful for
00:51:51your kid
00:51:52and his kid you know and for the world the brits shot it it was really funny you know jimmy
00:51:57talked with
00:51:58his hands as do i and so it's a lot of time they were shooting our hands we did not
00:52:02have an american
00:52:03director who would have shot our faces because we're not obliged to accept the world's definitions
00:52:08we had to make our own definitions and begin to rule the world that way because kids white and black
00:52:16cannot use what they have been given you know they're rejecting it they're rejecting it nobody
00:52:23wants to become the president of pan am or the governor of california or spiritual agnew the kids
00:52:29want to live what i most loved about the james baldwin giovanni episode is you could see james
00:52:35baldwin's fire which of course you get on the pages of anything he writes but the intonation all the
00:52:43the ways in which he conveys and articulates his words with his whole body you get that but you also
00:52:50get this kind of mentorship that he's offering her a black writer is still a freak you know maybe even
00:52:56a dancing dog we don't yet exist in the imagination of this century and we can't afford to play games
00:53:05there's too much at stake but there has to be a way to do what we do and survive which
00:53:11is uh to me what
00:53:11seems to be missing sweetheart sweetheart our ancestors taught us how to do that we have survived until now
00:53:20our job is to present black culture and r b music is a vital part of that entertainment can be
00:53:27a deep
00:53:28business it's not all just finger popping time we give exposure to black artists of all types
00:53:34people whom you practically never see on white tv and i feel good about what we're doing
00:53:45there was a lot of music on television on soul there were several groups that had their first tv
00:53:50experience and for most of them there was their first actual live performing on television and here
00:53:56now the elements of the universe earth wind and fire it was a big deal for them maurice was
00:54:15really excited because he was actually going to be performing live on television and he knew the show
00:54:22was going to show nationally
00:54:46we copied the idea from earth wind and fire of playing without playing
00:54:59and soul was an important part of my cultural daily intake
00:55:14we always speak of ourselves as sons and daughters of kings
00:55:20so we have a right to refer to ourselves as your highness but when we say highness now
00:55:25in our communities we're not talking about royalty
00:55:29so this is called bad news for your highness
00:55:32it's a song to deposed kings
00:55:35well you know that was such a common topic because remember the dope the dope thing was just
00:55:41out to lunch
00:55:45eater put in your arm in your mama's tears
00:55:49when they drag you out of hallway and sheldon baloney giggles about it
00:55:54what difference do it make stay high sucker chump yeah
00:56:02the president of the station said oh this is this is going to get taken off the air
00:56:07and ellis said let him take it off i said then you're going to rob the audience of hearing
00:56:13some great poetry because you won't let me bleep it he said all right bleep it but bleep it loud
00:56:19dopey put in your arm and your mama's tears
00:56:27my first appearance on soul was in on 1971. i was a dancer i danced with ailey but i was
00:56:36growing up
00:56:37in a political world and i had created a dance called poppy which was very topical because it dealt
00:56:46with drugs the metaphor come to life was this spider character that i had created and i illustrated
00:56:56through several vignettes what a heroine can do to a life
00:57:14alice saw this dance and was really taken by because he dealt with social issues
00:57:25america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse
00:57:32in order to fight and defeat this enemy it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive
00:57:43ellis hazlett he did not mind controversy i mean he had minister farrakhan on his show
00:57:49in the interview with minister lewis farrakhan he raises the issue of homosexuality
00:57:54but he also lets minister farrakhan speak i mean who else would have had minister farrakhan
00:58:02in the united states ellis was a openly gay male he knew the homophobia of the nation of islam and
00:58:11he sat right beside him and asked him some incisive questions very recently and this probably gets back
00:58:19to the moral morality or immorality we have seen quite a few incidents where uh prisoners and uh i think
00:58:29it's a known fact that quite a few of the people who have been brought to the nation of islam
00:58:34have
00:58:34discovered their righteousness while incarcerated in a prison and uh one of the things that most uh males and
00:58:42now i understand from the news that's coming out a lot of females have to deal with is homosexual
00:58:48relations in prisons uh how can they serve the nation of islam and does the fact that a man is
00:58:56a
00:58:56homosexual have anything to do that negate his coming into the nation and being dealt with by the
00:59:02nation of islam i think that when one looks at that episode you're seeing ellis taking farrakhan to
00:59:08the task in terms of sexual orientation and not sweeping it under the rug and farrakhan from what i
00:59:17could gleam was responded with a sermon let me say this my dear brother and to you in our viewing
00:59:25audience the honorable elijah muhammad has been raised up by allah not to condemn our people
00:59:35but to reclaim the fallen black man of america farrakhan literally it's like four and a half
00:59:41minutes i've timed it you know kind of like canned speech the audience loves it it's an offensive
00:59:48speech in many ways take this one would leave this one off who are we to pass that kind of
00:59:54judgment
00:59:55on our brothers and sisters we know the question should be asked whence came this perversion or this
01:00:06deviation and he was also you know preaching to the choir because he had all his folks there
01:00:11you know and the nation of islam was in the audience which is very interesting because there's
01:00:15that call in the spas man by nature is inclined to and leans toward the female and the female by
01:00:25nature leans toward the male now we want to know whence came this deviation
01:00:34and after that ellis hazel says you're amazing and i don't think he's saying you're amazing because i
01:00:40think what you're saying is right you're amazing because look at the power with what you speak look at
01:00:44how you rally how you make people feel and there's something valuable about that i get the sense
01:00:49that ellis did not need him his approval you know to be himself and i think that ellis knew that
01:00:57sexuality was fluid and um and you know what he got from farrakhan was farrakhan's conceding that
01:01:06you know all will be accepted you know that even though we're going to try to change you whether or
01:01:12not they're going to change someone you know that's a question but he did get farrakhan to articulate
01:01:18and embrace of same gender loving women and men and that was really powerful on you know television
01:01:28national television and public television yeah
01:01:38ellis was the most effective insidious revolutionary that i have ever met protest comes in various forms
01:01:48marching sitting in fasting fighting i mean getting down with it protest can be a brick hurtling through
01:01:56some dumb window and it can be the simple refusal to participate in some inhuman but popular act
01:02:03sometimes
01:02:07sometimes i feel
01:02:12like a motherless child
01:02:27sometimes i feel
01:02:32individualism is a luxury that we can no longer afford definition for black power is the coming
01:02:38together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary
01:02:55but i have news for you this time there's a difference this time we're going to win
01:03:03think of america we haven't had a moment of peace at all we think crime go up at astronomical rates
01:03:10and we
01:03:10will do what they will do what they have not done and provide the peace that americans want the black
01:03:14panther party overlooks nothing is afraid of nothing and is able to resolve the major contradiction of our time
01:03:26this
01:03:39this
01:03:44This FBI agent in California had said the young Negroes want something to be proud of.
01:03:50My fellow Americans, we're going to win because our cause is right.
01:03:54They need to know if they become revolutionaries, they'll be dead revolutionaries.
01:03:59This I say to you tonight is the real voice of America.
01:04:04I just find it incredible because what it means is that the person who's asking that question has absolutely no
01:04:10idea what black people have gone through,
01:04:13what black people have experienced in this country since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores
01:04:19of Africa.
01:04:20I come almost gone
01:04:30A long day from home
01:04:50Thank you. Thank you. I'm Ellis Hazliff and we are happy to have you with us this evening.
01:04:58We're also happy to have with us the mother of the late George Jackson.
01:05:02And we say only the body of George Jackson is gone because the spirit of George Jackson lives on.
01:05:09May we welcome Mrs. Georgia Jackson to New York and Seoul.
01:05:15Alice's approach was to find the humanity of George Jackson through his mother.
01:05:21And his mother has such composure. She spoke well. She humanized her son.
01:05:26Mrs. Jackson, George wrote of you and he said that you were the perfect revolutionary mother.
01:05:32And I wonder, when did you first become, to use the phrase, radicalized against the system?
01:05:39I don't consider myself radical. I don't consider myself militant.
01:05:44That's the name that is put on all the people in America who speak up for their own rights
01:05:50and who tried to point out the injustices that go on in this country.
01:05:54You're immediately named a radical or militant or a revolutionary or any other term that they choose to hang on
01:06:02you.
01:06:02But I consider myself a black American mother fighting for justice for all black Americans and all oppressed people all
01:06:11over the world.
01:06:17He did the same thing with Malcolm X, by humanizing Malcolm X through Betty Shabazz's interview.
01:06:25Some people thought of Betty Shabazz as being a kind of celebrity.
01:06:28But Alice realized, here's a woman whose husband has been assassinated,
01:06:32does not necessarily have the infrastructure of, you know, the Nation of Islam or any other organization to watch over
01:06:39her.
01:06:39He really thought about how do we protect this woman and how do we support the martyrs and the spouses
01:06:44of martyrs in the freedom struggle.
01:06:47Soul was giving a voice, TV exposure to people who were activists, revolutionaries.
01:06:55I was Eldridge's wife, but I was also the communications secretary.
01:06:59The FBI was very, very disturbed by that.
01:07:02I ended up on Soul to restore an understanding of what the Black Panther Party was really about.
01:07:07Sitting with me now is a sister who is deeply involved in what I should call right on revolutionary business.
01:07:14She is a member of the Revolutionary People's Communications Network.
01:07:18Kathleen Cleaver is known to most of you as the wife of Brother Eldridge Cleaver.
01:07:23Welcome to Soul, Kathleen.
01:07:25Kathleen Cleaver.
01:07:26Kathleen Cleaver, Kathleen, given that you have been in the struggle since 1964, you have two kids, do you think
01:07:33you will remain in the struggle for the rest of your life, you know, in the vanguard or...?
01:07:37I don't think I have any alternative at this point, even if I tried, even if I had any desire
01:07:43to withdraw.
01:07:44This is serious business.
01:07:46Our lives were at stake.
01:07:47We were being threatened, and the police were very hostile to us.
01:07:51It's a matter of life and death.
01:07:53You hope you'll live, but there is no guarantee.
01:07:56With all of my sense of early love and understanding at home, it took the rebellion of Black people to
01:08:04create an atmosphere in which I could function at all.
01:08:08And so, remembering all of those who fought for liberation and for my freedom, that's where my priorities are.
01:08:18Ellis was seditious, you know.
01:08:21You know, no one's ever said that about him.
01:08:23People would say things like, oh, he had a great vision, and he was a nice middle-class man.
01:08:29Right.
01:08:30He was seditious.
01:08:31That whole program was seditious.
01:08:33Soul was undiluted.
01:08:35It was absolutely in your face.
01:08:38And that was its value and also its undoing.
01:08:44Now I got to go to Vietnam.
01:08:46They want me to go to Vietnam to shoot some Black folks that never lynched me, never called me nigger,
01:08:52never put no dog on me, never assassinated my leaders.
01:08:54I'm fighting to free him, and my mama ain't free in Louisville.
01:08:57So since I got to die, just let me die here now.
01:09:02It was an evolutionary process.
01:09:04We grew out of stepping budget.
01:09:06We grew out of man-tan, Marlon.
01:09:08Out of us will come yet directors and producers who will have infinitely more freedom.
01:09:13This freedom that we have and the freedom that they will have comes from the strength that has been husband
01:09:19now in the Black community and is being felt politically, economically, and philosophically throughout the land.
01:09:25Many people assume that with material success comes a certain kind of absolute power.
01:09:31And I dare say that there is no such a thing.
01:09:35If you are Black in America, you are Black in America.
01:09:40With that, I'm going to...
01:09:50When Ellis loved you, he really loved you.
01:09:54Ellis was very much himself as a gay man or two-spirited or however you want to say it.
01:10:05That was his magic, being himself and really allowing for the creation of a different type of family.
01:10:15He didn't leave his family like a lot of LGBT folks of that generation might have done.
01:10:20He embraced that family, even if there might have been complexities in terms of acceptance.
01:10:25But he also was creating his family and creating this large community that he was also feeding.
01:10:33And he also saw love in many ways like James Baldwin or Bayard Rustin.
01:10:43It was a love that was beyond the romantic.
01:10:47It was this vast love and everything came from that with Ellis.
01:10:52And now we return to Stevie Wonder.
01:10:56When Stevie was there, he was so at home.
01:10:59We couldn't get him off the stage.
01:11:01Like when he did Superstition, it just went on and on and on and on and on.
01:11:06The artist and the audience share a real experience.
01:11:11It's a love exchange.
01:11:13The black performers are more at ease with the black audience and are sensitive to its vibrations.
01:11:20So, we get a better show.
01:11:24There is superstition.
01:11:29The writing's on the phone.
01:11:33There is superstition.
01:11:36We ran out of tape and he just went on forever.
01:11:38I think we might have even changed the reels, those big two-inch reels,
01:11:42and started recording again in the same song.
01:11:46The place went crazy and he could just feel the energy fed off of it.
01:11:52Like it's one thing to watch Stevie Wonder,
01:11:54but my favorite thing is watching the audience watch Stevie Wonder.
01:11:57Even things you don't understand,
01:12:00then you're surprised.
01:12:04The superstition is away.
01:12:08Yeah.
01:12:13Ellis said to me, they're canceling our series.
01:12:17I said, why?
01:12:19He said, well, you know.
01:12:21I said, Ellis, tell me what you've heard.
01:12:23He said, well, during these years we've had certain complaints about angry black poetry,
01:12:28too much politics, or how the music is filled with dirty words.
01:12:33And we've heard that stations haven't aired this show.
01:12:36They just take it off because they think the content's too black.
01:12:38I don't know how anything can be too black if it's a show for black people.
01:12:42But never mind.
01:12:43When all the dark clouds roll away
01:12:52I'm only interested in saying the truth because nothing could beat that.
01:12:57So if I say the truth and it hurts, I can't help that because I have to say the truth.
01:13:07Again, it is a correct interpretation of our history to let them know,
01:13:11Hey, brother, you're no Afro-American.
01:13:13Ain't no such thing.
01:13:14You're an African.
01:13:15And your society, your history don't begin 400 years.
01:13:18Your history begins millions and millions and millions and millions of years ago
01:13:22while the white boy was in the caves.
01:13:24Your fathers were building pyramids.
01:13:26The Leaning Tower of Pizza is falling.
01:13:28The Eiffel Tower is falling.
01:13:30The pyramids are standing strong.
01:13:32You've built them, brother.
01:13:33Get up and work.
01:13:34Your scientific people build.
01:13:35Build for your people.
01:13:36Don't sit down.
01:13:37There is nothing, nothing we cannot do.
01:13:39All we got to do as the Honorable Marcus Garvey said is,
01:13:42Get up and do it.
01:13:43We're a mighty race.
01:13:44Up now, you're a mighty race.
01:13:46I just had images of blacks all around the country saying,
01:13:50Yes, yes, tell them yes.
01:13:53And others plotting to get this show off the air because of just what they suspected was
01:13:59the response of the black community.
01:14:01I have never been aggressive about the treatment that soul has received in the past with regard
01:14:08to its being funded and subsequently projected to the public as a positive and proud production
01:14:14of Channel 13.
01:14:15However, I am more than concerned about the turn of events.
01:14:22Ellis says, Well, we better start a campaign.
01:14:25I said, What kind of a campaign?
01:14:27We are trying to create programs of black love, of black strength, of black encouragement.
01:14:34And we hope that you agree with what's going down.
01:14:38Yes, sir.
01:14:39And if you do agree, write us.
01:14:41If you don't agree, write us.
01:14:43We just need to hear from you.
01:14:45Our address is Seoul, 304 West 58th Street, New York City, 10019.
01:14:54We need your help.
01:14:55We need your support.
01:14:57We need your love.
01:14:59We need your disagreement.
01:15:01We just need to hear from you.
01:15:04The letters started coming in.
01:15:07They were fantastic.
01:15:09Thousands of letters from all walks of life, all kinds of people.
01:15:13One guy said, I'm not black, but that show has got it as far as I'm concerned.
01:15:19One young woman wrote in and said, We have a big, expensive television set in the home
01:15:24and it gets turned on twice a week for Seoul and for Seoul's rerun.
01:15:29We hope you will continue supporting us by writing to Seoul.
01:15:34Seoul.
01:15:35Seoul.
01:15:35Seoul.
01:15:36All you have to do is simply write to us.
01:15:38Simply write to Seoul.
01:15:42Well, I got a dance.
01:15:44Ain't got no steps.
01:15:45Nope.
01:15:47I'm gonna let the music move me a'round, yeah.
01:15:51I got a dance.
01:15:53I ain't got no steps.
01:15:54Nope.
01:15:56Gonna let the music move me a'round.
01:15:59When it's all about in section,
01:16:12We interrupted this program tonight with Billy Preston, the master's child, to tell you that
01:16:19a few weeks ago, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced those programs which
01:16:26would be included in its funding cycle for next season.
01:16:31So was not, I repeat, so was not one of the programs that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
01:16:40said that they would refund for next season.
01:16:44Soul and Black Journal, both of which at that point are produced out of Channel 13 in New York,
01:16:49are both slated for defunding, which essentially means canceled.
01:16:54Nixon got in, and he had a very different idea for Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
01:17:00It takes a turn ever so quickly.
01:17:02It's part of a policy to destroy all Black programming on the network.
01:17:07Ellis Hazelby is totally correct.
01:17:08You know, when he tells Jet Magazine and when he tells other journalists, like, this is about
01:17:12getting rid of Blacks on television.
01:17:14I think there's always somebody, and sometimes there are large numbers of them, who are embarrassed
01:17:20or irritated or frightened of programs in which people, Black, White, Hispanic, or any other
01:17:30nationality, say exactly what they want to say.
01:17:34So sure, if Ellis said that there were people wanting to get rid of all Black programming in
01:17:39the Nixon administration, I'm sure there were some people who wanted to do that.
01:17:58I think we took control of the board, so it took control of the board.
01:18:05Our first step for this year is to get rid of the public affairs program.
01:18:09But how did we get rid of it?
01:18:10I just ran out of it.
01:18:12There's a lot of people who wanted to do that.
01:18:34I have heard that somebody at CPB said, we have conquered racism in America, so we don't need
01:18:42Soul anymore, or Black Journal.
01:18:44If anyone did say that, they have to be prime idiots or they were shills for President Nixon.
01:18:51No one in their right mind could think that racism was dead after three or four years of Soul.
01:18:58If it was, then that's a pretty good result for a television series.
01:19:04Ellis believed that there was no need to embroil himself and to be in the rough and tumble politics of
01:19:14the streets.
01:19:14He was a noble.
01:19:15He was a patrician.
01:19:17He saw no need for it, but there was something else.
01:19:20I remember talking to him and saying, Ellis, what the is wrong with you?
01:19:25Why are you standing here?
01:19:27We're missing a show that is so important.
01:19:29Let's move on PBS.
01:19:31Let's move on Channel 13.
01:19:33Ellis, what they're doing is treating us like niggas.
01:19:35And I refused to be treated like that.
01:19:37And I started screaming.
01:19:39And he said, Felipe, I am not going to get involved in the politics of the streets.
01:19:49I'm just not going to do it.
01:19:51I said, Ellis, do you understand what this means?
01:19:54We're going to lose the damn show.
01:19:57This is a piece of history.
01:19:59Let's fight for it.
01:20:00He said, if they don't understand the importance of this show, let it go.
01:20:07Sometimes it's necessary, and the evolution of things, to disappear.
01:20:15Bless you.
01:20:16This is dedicated all to you, okay?
01:20:18Yes.
01:20:26I have been very fortunate in being received in many homes across the country.
01:20:31And I thank you for that opportunity and that privilege of being in your homes.
01:20:37It was a loss.
01:20:39It actually left a hole, a vacuum, in our lives.
01:20:47Because where do you go?
01:20:52When you burn with a feeling of rage,
01:20:58And there's nowhere to express it that anyone will hear you.
01:21:04I ain't been doing nothing but
01:21:11With my head in my hands
01:21:13I've been crying over me
01:21:17I've been crying over me
01:21:18Seoul taped its first program on September the 8th, 1968.
01:21:24We began the route of documenting our own history.
01:21:29Because we know from what we see in the media, from the response we've had from the people,
01:21:35That Seoul will be included in the television history of this decade when things go down.
01:21:41I just hated to see the demise of Seoul.
01:21:44Simply for the reason that, you know, you knew that they were not going to replace it.
01:21:48But because I hadn't seen enough images of myself, I watched.
01:21:54Lo and behold, I saw Wilson Pickett, the last poet, was introduced to Barbara Ann Teer,
01:22:02Billy Preston, Stevie Wonder, Nikki Giovanni, Al Green, experienced Bill Withers, and Imam Ubaraka.
01:22:09And I'm not trying to say that I won't ever see black people on TV should some unaware group of
01:22:16people take Seoul off.
01:22:18It's just that I won't see black people creating, searching, and acting instead of researching and re-acting.
01:22:26There exists, as far as I know, no TV program that deals with my culture so completely, so freely, and
01:22:33so beautifully.
01:22:34There is no alternative to Seoul.
01:22:38And I hope he knew that was important, that he was there.
01:22:42You know, he was saying, this is how you do this, sucker.
01:22:45Although it's over, it's not the end.
01:22:49Black seeds keep on growing.
01:22:52There's been a dream of mine, and it still is a dream of mine,
01:22:56and that is that black people can come together and can form a union of coexisting in an artistic world
01:23:04where everything can be beautiful and you can avoid a lot of the discussions and hassles because they understand.
01:23:11Black authors and poets trying to put it on paper, trying hard.
01:23:15Black songwriters and singers recording soulful gospel, jazz, rock.
01:23:20It's there, and we know it.
01:23:23Keep hope alive!
01:23:30I'm reclaiming my time.
01:23:32Reclaiming my time.
01:23:34Reclaiming my time.
01:23:35Yes, we are all mirror-eyed people.
01:23:40Black people.
01:23:41Miracle people.
01:23:42Spiritual people.
01:23:43Gifted people.
01:23:44God-given people with mirror eyes.
01:23:47Reflecting love and hate.
01:23:49They are our hope, our lives, our past, present, and future.
01:23:52Our children and their children.
01:23:54All me, yours, ours.
01:23:55So let's give all these beautiful people who are giving me all these vibrations a warm heart.
01:24:03We were just mind-blowing, like, yo, this is every day.
01:24:07To me, that was true black power right there.
01:24:11Today, some 50 years later,
01:24:14can you imagine what soul would have been like for a 20-year run?
01:24:17Like, how different would our lives have been?
01:24:20This is Ellis Hayslip saying goodnight.
01:24:29Do you know who you are?
01:24:33Where you come from and what you possess?
01:24:39Service to others is a rent we pay for taking up space on the planet.
01:24:45Ellis served the whole nation.
01:24:47So Ellis' rent has been fully paid.
01:24:49But certainly, had we more Ellis Hayslips today,
01:24:54more men and women of that fabric,
01:24:58with that kind of gift,
01:25:00with that kind of passion,
01:25:02with that kind of quest for truth,
01:25:06I think, by a large America,
01:25:08and the world,
01:25:10will be a better place
01:25:12in which to reside.
01:25:15You'll get an ending better than that.
01:25:19This is over.
01:25:20Show me your soul.
01:25:22Where is your soul?
01:25:24Where is your soul?
01:25:25Where is your soul?
01:25:26Show me your soul.
01:25:27Show me your soul.
01:25:29Find that there's nothing but evolution in my soul.
01:25:32Show me your soul.
01:25:37My soul.
01:25:53Where is your soul?
01:25:56Where is your soul?
01:25:56I don't think so.
01:25:56You'll have to leave.
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