"Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said on Tuesday.
The coroner is officially ruling Cornelius' death a suicide but said additional toxicology test were pending.
In 1970, Cornelius, a former Chicago disc jockey and radio reporter, launched Soul Train, an R&B-themed dance show on WCIU and moved it to syndication the next year with stations in several cities picking it up. The show later moved to Los Angeles and became an instant hit. The show ran in syndication for 25 years before it went off the air in 2006.
According to The Times' Hollywood Walk of Fame database, Cornelius’ “Soul Train” became the longest-running, first-run nationally syndicated show in television history, bringing African American music and style to the world .
Don Cornelius 1936-2012 | Soul Train
Cornelius also went through personal drama due to bitter divorce proceedings in 2009. The consequence was that Cornelius suffered "significant health issues" and wanted to "finalize this divorce before I die." In 2008, Cornelius was arrested beating up his wife. He pled no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence and was placed on three years probation. His probation just terminated and the divorce was granted in 2010.
A relative of Cornelius found him at his Mulholland Drive home last week. He was rushed to Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to law enforcement sources.
Rest in Peace, Love, And Soul.
Sidenote: This tragedy has special meaning in the African-American community, which has long nourished a dangerous myth that black people don't commit suicide.
It is a point of mythical ethnic pride that our ancestors found ways to persevere despite centuries of slavery, struggle and hardship. Black people created the blues, it is often said, because we didn't have psychotherapists.
Besides, as an old joke goes, we black people don't kill ourselves because you can't kill yourself by jumping out of a basement window. We can only wish that were true. Although whites and Native Americans have the highest suicide rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the black suicide rate has been high enough in recent years to claim one African-American every 4.5 hours.
No group is immune. By gender, non-Hispanic white and Native American men have the highest suicide rates, of about 25 lives per 100,000. That's more than four times the rate of women in each racial group. It also is more than twice the rate of black and Hispanic men, whose suicide rate of about 11 per 100,000 is five times the rate of black and Hispanic women. Asian-American men have a rate of about 9 per 100,000, slightly more than twice the rate of Asian-American women.
Yet the black suicide myth persists. "As a mental-health advocate, over the years I've heard variations of the 'black people don't commit suicide' meme," wrote Bassey Ikpi on the black-oriented The Root website after Cornelius' death. "Yesterday the chorus was deafening. People went so far as to create elaborate conspiracy theories rather than accept what could be a simple truth — that Cornelius had taken his own life."
"Happiness is a private club that will not let me enter"
Generic suicide note.
"People feel guilty if they failed to get help for their lost loved one," a counselor told me, and they feel guilty if they did get help and the loved one killed him or herself anyway. It is best to seek help. Whether you believe it or not, you have too much to lose.
Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board and blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespage. He became an advocate on suicide because of a personal tragedy, back in May 1984, when suicide ended the life and career of his ex-wife Leanita McClain, an award-winning Chicago Tribune columnist and ghetto-to-Gold-Coast success story
Follow Him on Twitter: @cptime
Via The Chicago Tribune
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