Soul Train was one of the longest-running shows in television history, a Saturday afternoon event that helped spread black music and culture to the rest of the world. It was started in 1970 by a Chicago disc jockey named Don Cornelius, who died early this morning at his home in Sherman Oaks of a self-inflicted gunshot. When Cornelius syndicated the program he brought it to LA, where it originated for 35 years. One avid viewer was Erin Aubry Kaplan, now a columnist and the author of Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Waling the Color Line: Dispatches from a Black Journalista.
KCRW
