Still's Afro-American Symphony has been recorded by the Detroit  Symphony Orchestra, under Neeme Jarvi, Conductor, on Chandos 9154 (1993). Michael Fleming writes in the liner notes:

His musical training was twofold, embracing the European tradition at Oberlin College, and the African-American in his work with W. C.  Handy in New York.  He earned his living playing the oboe in the pit band for the musical  Shuffle Along.  While the show was on tour in Boston, he took some composition lessons from George Chadwick; later, the avant-garde composer Edgar Varese took him on as a composition pupil.  Still's studies with the composer George Chadwick took place at the New England Conservatory of Music, beginning in 1921.  A scholarship enabled him to study composition with Edgar Varese in New York City.  He also received a Guggenheim fellowship and a Rosenwald fellowship.

Still became a classical composer while working in the record business.  He held a variety of positions with Black Swan Records, a label owned by African Americans.  Myers adds that in the late 1920s, Still turned to  composing classical music.  He  created over 150 musical works  including a series of five symphonies, four ballets, and nine operas.

As to Still's symphonic debut, these liner notes explain the significance of his first performance of his  Afro-American Symphony:

       Howard Hanson [1896-1981], who conducted the premiere with the Rochester Philharmonic in 1931, was a noted exponent of contemporary   American music.  Once he had paved he way, others moved quickly to take up Still's cause: the New York Philharmonic gave the New York    premiere of the symphony in 1935 at Carnegie Hall.  It was considered the Song of a New Race.  For several years after his successful debut as a symphonist , Still continued to be regarded as primarily an arranger.  Michael Fleming has also written the liner notes for Still's  Symphony No. 2 in G Minor  (Song of a New Race)  (29:22).  It was recorded by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Jarvi, Conductor, on Chandos 9226 (1993).  Fleming recounts:  "Yet he persisted, and on 10 December 1937, Leopold Stokowski conducted the Symphony in G Minor with the   Philadelphia Orchestra.   The composer provided subtitles for the four movements of the symphony:  Yearnings, Sorrow, Humor  and  Aspiration."

To conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States, as well as in the Deep South,

To conduct a major American network radio orchestra,

To have an opera produced by a major American company, and

To have an opera televised over a national network in the United States (after his death)
 

William Grant Still also broadened the scope of classical music when he...

Became the first composer to incorporate a folk instrument in a serious orchestral work
when he included the banjo in
his work, "The Afro-American Symphony."

Became the first composer to orchestrate the popular Broadway dance number, "The Charleston,"

Challenged the European tradition of classical music by creating serious music that
recognized the diversity of cultures
in the world, and particularly, in American life, and

Pioneered in using unusual instruments, such as vibraphones and a railroad hammer,
in his works.