Before the World Rode, Soul Train Started in Chicago

Old Soul Train videos were part of how I came to know the show, and I saw the Soul Train line come to life at parties. I talked with my late great-grandmother about it and discovered its style in archival images from publications like Ebony and Jet. Even for those of us who were not there at the beginning, the music, movement and images have a way of reaching us.

As a Black man from Chicago, knowing that Soul Train started here gives that history another layer for me. It belongs to a much wider story of Black creativity in this city, from the places where people gathered and shopped to the music, fashion and movement that traveled far beyond our neighborhoods.

On August 17, 1970, Don Cornelius brought Soul Train to Chicago television on WCIU. Before it became a national institution, it was a local show where young people could see Black music, dance and style on screen. WBEZ describes a line of young people waiting outside the Board of Trade building to be part of the show. Source ↗

A platform for the people in the room

The Chicago story starts with more than one person. Cornelius built the platform, and dancer and choreographer Clinton Ghent helped bring dancers together. The local show created a place where Black young people, musicians and performers could be seen. As the Chicago Reader documents, the Chicago edition aired on weekdays after school and continued to make original episodes until 1976. Source ↗

Dancers at a Soul Train-affiliated contest at High Chaparral in Chicago’s South Shore, 1976. Photo: Larry Graff / Chicago Sun-Times. Source ↗

The clothes were part of that visibility. Fashion was not separate from the dancing or the music: it was another way to show personality and move through the world. A look could tell you something about the person wearing it, and seeing that expression on television could make it feel possible for someone watching at home.

For some Chicago creatives, the show was also a place to present their own designs. WBEZ reports that artist Michael Griffin was part of Les Ménage, a group of designers and models whom Ghent invited onto the show to model their clothing. That detail makes the story feel especially close to CFC’s work: a platform became a place where the people making the culture could be seen. Source ↗

That matters to me when I think about the stylish photographs and stories we have inherited from Chicago. Black fashion history is not a footnote to the city’s culture. It is part of the fabric of that culture, made by people who brought their own creativity to the places and platforms available to them.

Chicago and the national story

In 1971 Cornelius launched a syndicated version of Soul Train from Los Angeles. It became the show many people across the country came to know. But Chicago’s local show did not simply disappear when the national version began. It continued here, with Ghent later taking over as host. The two versions overlapped; they are related histories, not interchangeable locations. Source ↗

CFC timeline. Sources: Chicago Reader and WBEZ. Source ↗

That distinction matters when we look at the archive. A photograph from a later national episode can tell us about Soul Train’s broader legacy, but it should not be labeled as the original Chicago studio unless its source establishes that. The history deserves that care.

Looking back to move forward

Chicago’s Black cultural history continues beyond any one show. I think about the styles preserved in magazines, the histories of places like Bronzeville and Maxwell Street, and the ways music and dance changed over time, from disco to house and beyond. Those connections are an invitation to keep researching and listening, not a single straight line of influence.

Attendees dance at Soul in the City, a 2026 Chicago celebration ahead of the Soul Train Awards taping. Photo: Candace Dane Chambers / Chicago Sun-Times. Source ↗

The Soul Train Awards’ first Chicago taping in 2026 offers a reason to return to this history. WBEZ reported that the awards were scheduled to air November 27. That is a moment to celebrate, but the story is bigger than any one awards broadcast. Source ↗

Chicago native LisaRaye McCoy at An Evening with Queen Latifah, an awards-week kickoff in Chicago. Photo: Candace Dane Chambers / Chicago Sun-Times. Source ↗

Queen Latifah and Tammy Hammond at An Evening with Queen Latifah, a 2026 awards-week event in Chicago. Photo: Candace Dane Chambers / Chicago Sun-Times. Source ↗

I want Black readers, especially younger Chicagoans, to feel the pride in knowing that this city helped create a platform that traveled so far. And I want people discovering the story for the first time to be curious about the artists, dancers and communities behind it.

The question for us now is how we carry that spirit forward: how we create platforms where a new generation can see itself, express its own style and shape what comes next. Honoring that history also means finding ways to keep building on it.