A newspaper built to tell the story truthfully
THE STORY OF SOUL.
Explore SOUL’s history one chapter at a time. Use the chapter buttons or the Previous and Next controls to move through the story.
1966 · Origins
A need to tell a fuller story.
SOUL’s beginnings were shaped by Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. During the 1965 Watts Rebellion, Regina Jones was working as an emergency operator and received the first call reporting the unrest. She contacted her husband, Ken Jones, a local reporter with experience in radio and print.
Ken saw how rarely Black life was reported with depth or dignity. Music was carrying news, protest, pride, and possibility across the country, yet the artists creating it were often missing from television, magazines, publicity materials, and even their own record covers. A publication devoted to their work could help change that.