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From the dance line to the platform shoes to the stars on its stage, Soul Train was the first nationally syndicated show that was made by and for African Americans that was also owned by an African American. Don Cornelius wanted to make the "black Bandstand" and, in the process, portrayed African Americans doing things that Laurence Ralph describes as "radically ordinary." This episode highlights some of the influential music performed on Soul Train from legends including The O'Jays, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and James Brown, as well as discusses the importance of the show's very existence on a television landscape that was sorely lacking in African American representation.