You’ve seen the early episodes. Teeth gleaming, hips grooving, and oil-misted ‘fros bouncing to the beat. This was “Soul Train,” the music television series that served as Blackness’ binoculars. It featured popular cuts and performances by a variety of acts, not to mention the liveliest studio audience you’d ever seen. Decades before MTV’s “TRL,” BET’s “106 & Park” or NPR’s “Tiny Desk,” to name just a few, “Soul Train” was chugga-chugging along, shaping ideas of cool across dance, fashion and culture.
Debuting in August 1970 on Chicago’s WCIU-TV, the Saturday morning entertainment show was a look at carefree, yet politically alert, Black Americans. In the middle of the Black Power era and feeding from the civil rights movement, “Soul Train” provided a fresh opportunity for Black people to see and celebrate themselves.
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