Jackie Robinson Can Never Again Negros Racists -baseball

In 1957, a mag printed a lie about Elvis, not the beginning one, not the terminal one, but one that has been often passed on through the years and at times artists of today like to throw out the slur when needing a headline, so there are those that believe Elvis was racist.  Yeah, nosotros know that the notion that Elvis was a racist is preposterous. It's as stupid at present as it was and then, just here is our definitive response to this nonsense.

When the 'establishment' accused Elvis Presley of being vulgar, of existence deliberately sexual, they did not mean this. This was the encompass for what was actually meant, what was really feared, and that was thatElvis would atomic number 82 to equal rights and racial integration. And not simply Elvis whatever white person singing stone 'north' roll. Carl Perkins was warned to not do his show. Elvis was merely the number one guy and therefore got the most attention.

Following his 'Milton Berle' testify, Elvis was savaged by critics who described his leg-shaking, hip-swivelling performance as 'baneful' and his singing as 'caterwauling'. Often the criticism had a racist edge, since Elvis was singing what was considered 'black music'. One critic summed up his operation as 'the kind of lust that should be bars to dives and bordellos'. A Cosmic weekly ran its criticism under the banner, 'Beware of Elvis Presley'. Ilva Price, an African American now living in West Memphis, TN, recalled how her father, angry about rumours (afterwards found by 'Jet' mag to exist fabricated), that Elvis had stolen 'their' music and was a racist, quickly turned off the radio when he noticed her girl's reaction to his voice, and so called him a 'cracker', a racial epithet every bit disgusting as any other ... : Boston World Interview by Renee Graham, published on August xi, 2002.

Sammy Davis Jr : 'I have a respect for Elvis and my friendship. It ain't my business what he did in private. The only thing I desire to know is, 'Was he my friend?', 'Did I enjoy him every bit a performer?', 'Did he give the world of entertainment something?' - and the reply is Yeah on all accounts. The other jazz only don't thing'. 'Early somebody told me that Elvis was black. And I said 'No, he's white but he's down-home'. And that is what it'due south all about. Non being black or white information technology's being 'down-dwelling house' and which role of down-dwelling you lot come from'.

'On a scale of one to ten, I would charge per unit Elvis eleven'.

James Chocolate-brown

James Brown and Elvis Presley were skillful friends and admired each others talents. James authored two books, and one contains this quote almost Elvis: 'I wasn't just a fan, I was his brother. He said I was skilful and I said he was good; we never argued about that. Elvis was a difficult worker, dedicated, and God loved him ... I dear him and promise to see him in heaven. There'll never be another similar that soul brother' .

James was was ane of the celebrities who attended Elvis' funeral. George Klein : 'One of the showtime phone calls I remember receiving came from James Chocolate-brown, who wanted to tell me how broken up he was over the news. He asked if he could come to the firm during the private viewing'. 'I checked with Priscilla to make sure it was all right, and late in the afternoon James came upward to join united states of america - the first of many major artists to pay their respects. 'I recollect being taken aback past how truly distraught James was ... So he sat motionless in the corner of the living room for a long while earlier joining the rest of the mourners in the den. In his autobiography, Brown wrote, 'His expiry hitting me very hard. When he died, I said, 'That's my friend, I accept to go'.

Shortly afterwards Elvis died, James Dark-brown recorded Love Me Tender as the b-side of his hit record The Spank. Brownish did this touching spoken intro: 'I want to talk about a good friend I had for a long fourth dimension and a man I still love, Brother Elvis Presley. Yous know, if he were here right now, I'g certain he would say the same affair for me. I loved the man and he was truly the king of rock and roll. We've always had kind of a toss up. Elvis and I. The King of Rock And Gyre and I'thousand the King of Soul. So I wanted to say this for the people, Elvis, and myself'.

Elvis Presley and Racism

Elvis Presley & Sammy Davis Jr.

In April 1957, Sepia mag, a white-owned sensationalist monthly for black readers, took upwardly a discussion, 'How Negroes Feel About Elvis', as controversial then every bit information technology is today: the case of a white child - Elvis Presley - who adopted blackness music and became the well-nigh successful artist of his time.

The headline: 'How Negroes Feel Most Elvis'

It begins: ... 'As 1 of the most-debated subjects in the land, Elvis Presley arouses white-heat discussion everywhere. But amongst Negroes, the controversy over Elvis is fifty-fifty more explosive than among whites. Colored opinion about the hydromatic-hipped hillbilly from Mississippi runs the gamut from caustic condemnation to agog admiration'.

'Some Negroes are unable to forget that Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, domicile boondocks of the foremost Dixie race baiter, former Congressman Jon Rankin. Others believe a rumored fissure past Elvis during a Boston appearance in which he is alleged to have said: 'The only thing Negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records'.

And there it is.

The first time ever that statement appeared in impress, says Michael T. Bertrand, writer of the book Race, Rock, and Elvis (2000, University of Illinois Press) and a Southern studies professor at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. 'Each time I teach a new class on popular music and Southern history, I still have African-American students come up upwardly after class and say, 'You know, I heard from my uncle what Elvis said'.

'So I eventually had to notice where it came from'.

'All these years subsequently Elvis' death, people still want to know how blackness people feel about Elvis Presley. Was he just some other white Southern racist? Was he an impostor or worse, a thief? Ane simple lie, and those predisposed to believe information technology did. Some said he made the remark while in Boston. Elvis had never been to Boston. Others said they heard it on Edward R. Murrow's CBS TV show Person to Person. But after Elvis' manager Col. Tom Parker demanded an advent fee, CBS balked and Elvis didn't become on the testify.

Rejection of Integration

The true root of the 'Elvis Was a Racist' line of thinking is a distinctly modernistic rejection of integration, one of the ethics of the civil rights movement that we've chosen to blissfully ignore. There is a belief, amidst both blacks and whites, that black music is for blacks and any white human playing is guilty of some terrible misappropriation, and that this misappropriation is an outgrowth of the horrible sins committed against blacks by whites throughout our nation's history. There's no reason to 'debunk' this argument, because information technology is transparently foolish and absolutely racist, on both sides. For blacks to endeavour to lock one side out of the racial dialogue is counterproductive and reactionary, and for whites to believe that only blacks should play 'black music' is a PC'd-up version of the Stepin Fetchit/minstrel mentality, patently and simple.

The investigation : Changing perceptions

Earlier we go further, lets make information technology clear, in the instance of people saying Elvis was racist, we accept no doubt that this is based on misunderstanding, past what they take been told, (every bit stated above) or considering of jealousy. Now jealousy is understandable, through no fault of Elvis' he did benefit from the writing of black musicians, and his blending of different musical styles and the order of the times did end a lot of African American artists prospering as they tin can do today. Just that was non Elvis' fault, in fact it is to his credit (as many black musicians have stated and you lot can read beneath) that he was prepared to encompass a music forbidden by much of social club, in fact often Elvis and other artists such as Carl Perkins where persecuted for singing the then called 'race' music and pressured past town authorities to not perform these songs, considered to be 'black music'.

Elvis Presley talks as two immature reporters listen intently backstage at the Pull a fast one on Theatre : May 25, 1956.

Elvis Presley talks equally two immature reporters listen attentively backstage at the Fox Theatre : May 25, 1956.

From a very early age growing up in a poor Southern community Elvis spent much of his early years arresting the music of local impoverished black communities like Shake Rag in Tupelo and later on the Beale Street area of Memphis. This was non normal behavior, but then Elvis was not your average guy. Elvis, unlike near white teenagers would delight in attention the colored East Trigg Baptist Church where he would hear local black gospel music. Elvis was not guided by colour but by what he liked and felt good with.

Fats Domino & Elvis Presley.

Many black artists have spoken out to honor the singer. From bluesman B.B. Rex to rapper Chuck D, these influential musicians are helping to alter perceptions of Elvis. Elvis couldn't do it himself.

Soon subsequently the Sepia rumor started, Elvis broke his media silence for an sectional interview in Jet, another magazine targeted at black readers.

Knowing the dubious reputation of Sepia, Louie Robinson, the black associate editor of the black-endemic JET magazine, decided to investigate the authenticity of the alleged statement and written report to his readers.

'Tracing the rumored racial slur to its source was like running a gopher to globe', Robinson subsequently wrote. 'No affair what hole it dived back in, it popped out of another one'. Running down Elvis was easier. In the summertime of 1957, Robinson interviewed the star in his Hollywood dressing room.

The Jet article of 1957 further confirmed what friends and associates knew about Elvis all forth: He truly loved and respected black musicians.

In fact the rumor should have stopped then and in that location since, on the set of Jailhouse Stone, Elvis was directly challenged nigh the statement by reporter Louie Robinson from the prominent black newspaper 'Jet'.

Elvis honestly replied, 'I never said annihilation similar that, and people who know me know that I wouldn't have said it'. 'A lot of people seem to think I started this business concern', he told Jet. 'But rock due north curl was hither a long time before I came forth'. 'Nobody can sing that kind of music similar colored people'.

'Let'due south face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that'.

Robinson and then talked with some blacks who knew Elvis and included their remarks in his JET article. 'He faces everybody as a man', said Dudley Brooks, a Los Angeles piano thespian who worked on Elvis Presley's recording sessions. 'I never heard of the remark, but even so I tin can't imagine Presley saying that, non knowing him the manner I practise'.

Back in Tupelo, Dr. W.A. Zuber told Robinson, 'I knew him when he was a kid. He used to play the guitar and go around with quartets and to Negro 'sanctified' meetings. He lived near the colored department, and people around hither say he'due south one of the nicest boys they ever knew. He just doesn't impress me as the type of person who would say a matter like that.

Indeed, in heavily segregated Memphis of that solar day, Presley was regularly seen at black-only events. In June 1956, a Memphis newspaper reported that Elvis had attended the Memphis Fairgrounds amusement park on a designated 'colored night'. The side by side month, he attended blackness radio station WDIA'due south charity event, featuring all-blackness talent, including Ray Charles, B.B. King, the Moonglows, and DJ Rufus Thomas. (More on this beneath).

As Elvis left the Hudson Theater on July one, 1956 his fans reached out for an autograph and to bear on their idol.

B.B. King defends Elvis

In a Sepia article, B.B. Male monarch supported Elvis. 'What most people don't know', stated King, 'is that this boy is serious about what he's doing. He's carried away past information technology. When I was in Memphis with my band, he used to stand in the wings and sentinel u.s.a. perform. Equally for fading abroad, stone and scroll is here to stay and so, I believe, is Elvis. He'southward been a shot in the arm to the concern and all I tin say is 'that'due south my man'.

In his 1957 investigative article in JET, Louie Robinson concluded that not only did blacks know Presley; he also knew blacks. 'I ever wanted to sing similar Billy Kenny of the Ink Spots', Robinson quoted Elvis. 'I like that high, smoothen style'. When Robinson asked about the origin of his 'earthy, moaning baritone' singing voice, Presley responded, 'I never sang like this in my life until I made that offset record - That's Alright, Mama. I remembered that song because I heard Arthur (Big Male child) Crudup sing information technology and I thought I would like to effort it'.

Robinson's Conclusion

Robinson did confirm that Presley was making more money singing rhythm and blues than black performers of the mean solar day. While Elvis' nearest competitor, Fats Domino, was expected to earn $700,000 in 1957, Robinson suggested Elvis would earn twice that much. And as for the accusation that Presley was making buckets full of money off songs written by blacks, who earned very little for their songwriting talents, Robinson quoted Otis Blackwell, writer of ii huge Presley hits 'Don't Be Cruel' and 'All Shook Up'. Without giving specific numbers, Blackwell confirmed, 'I got a good deal. I made coin. I'm happy'. Elvis - 'I e'er liked that kind of music'.

Robinson was impressed with Presley's honest evaluation of his contribution to the genre.

'A lot of people seem to think I started this business concern', Elvis explained, 'but rock 'n' whorl was here a long time before I came forth. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face information technology; I can't sing it similar Fats Domino can. I know that. But I always liked that kind of music.'

As for the 'shine rumor', it was easy for Robinson to discard the Sepia magazine accusation that Elvis made the remark in Boston, since the twenty-ii-year-former vocalist had never been in that city. Robinson had also heard, past 'word of rima oris', that Elvis made the infamous comment to Edward R. Murrow on his CBS-TV show. Since records verified that Presley had never appeared on 'Person to Person', Robinson ultimately concluded that no proof existed that Elvis had always made the alleged racial statement anywhere.

Thus, JET magazine, highly respected among American blacks in 1957, non only cleared Elvis of voicing the racist comment, only likewise portrayed him as a young white man who fostered race equality in both his professional person and private life. Elvis probably thought he had put the rumor to rest for skillful. Little did he know that all these years after his death it would continue to live on every bit an urban legend. The idea of Elvis racism would non die so hands.

Musicologists belittle at talk of a racist Elvis

A clay-poor outcast at segregated Humes High School, he wore pink shirts and pomaded hair like the folks he admired downward on Beale Street. He listened religiously to Memphis's black radio station WDIA and became friends with then-disc jockey B.B. King, who afterwards dedicated him in Sepia: 'What most people don't know is that this boy is serious nearly what he's doing. He'due south carried away past it. When I was in Memphis with my ring, he used to stand in the wings and watch us perform. Every bit for fading away, rock and roll is here to stay and so, I believe, is Elvis. He's been a shot in the arm to the business and all I can say is 'that'south my human'.

African-American Newspapers Declare Elvis a Hero

'Downwards in Tupelo, Mississippi', Elvis told a white reporter for 'The Charlotte Observer' in 1956, he used to heed to Arthur Crudup, the blues singer who originated That'south All Right, Elvis' first record. Crudup, he said, used to 'blindside his box the mode I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd exist a music man like nobody always saw'. It was statements similar these that caused Elvis to be seen as something of a hero in the black community in those early on years. In Memphis the two African-American newspapers, 'The Memphis World' and 'The Tri-Land Defender', hailed him as a 'race man' - not merely for his music simply also for his indifference to the usual social distinctions. [Elvis was truly a man alee of his time].

Photos

We include many photos of Elvis with various black artists, all seem to show a young white Southerner -- gasp! -- having fun with blacks! This could be said to be purely circumstantial, of form, but the poses taken and comradely obvious in these snapshots do not seem to point to some sort of deep-seated racism on Presley'south part. Yous will see in the photos though that the friendships where long lasting, with photos of Elvis with Sammy Davis Jr from the 1950s to 1969 for example. And possibly the best two examples prevarication directly below.

Elvis was there when it mattered : 'cracking Memphis's segregation laws'

Firstly, in June 1956, 'The Memphis World' newspaper reported, 'the rock 'n' ringlet phenomenon cracked Memphis'southward segregation laws' past attending the Memphis Fairgrounds amusement park 'during what is designated as 'colored night'. On December 7, 1956 Elvis also attended the otherwise segregated WDIA black radio station's almanac fund-raiser for 'needy Negro children' at Memphis' Ellis Auditorium.

On this Dec nighttime, Elvis performed aslope some of his own heroes, Ray Charles, B.B Rex & Rufus Thomas. There was no dubiousness that Elvis was seen every bit a champion in the blackness Memphis community and his concert audiences were certainly not all white as is often believed. Although Elvis' recording contract did non permit him to perform at the fund-raiser for radio station WDIA, he set off a awareness. The Pittsburgh Courier described the reaction that night as, 'A thousand black, brown and beige teen-age girls in the audition composite their alto and soprano voices in one wild crescendo of sound that rent the rafters ... and took off like scalded cats in the direction of Elvis Presley'. (All from just a brief emergence from behind the curtain!!).

B.B. Rex

The radio station chosen itself the 'Mother Station of the Negroes'. In the aftermath of the event, a number of Negro newspapers printed photographs of Elvis with both Rufus Thomas and B.B. Male monarch ('Thanks, man, for all the early lessons you gave me', were the words The Tri-State Defender reported he said to Mr. King).

When he returned to the revue the post-obit December (December 6, 1957), a fashionable shot of him 'talking shop' with Trivial Junior Parker and Bobby 'Blue' Bland appeared in Memphis'south mainstream afternoon newspaper, 'The Press-Scimitar', accompanied past a short characteristic that fabricated Elvis' feelings abundantly clear. 'It was the real thing', he said, summing up both functioning and audience response. 'Right from the heart'.

Elvis Presley and B.B. Rex backstage at the WDIA Goodwill Revue.
Ellis Auditorium on December 7, 1956. Elvis attends with George Klein. Photos by Ernest Withers.

Elvis backstage at WDIA Goodwill Revue, Memphis, Dec vii, 1956.

Below, when Elvis returned to the revue the following December (December 6, 1957), a fashionable shot of him 'talking shop' with Little Inferior Parker and Bobby 'Blue' Bland appeared in Memphis's mainstream afternoon paper, 'The Press-Scimitar', accompanied by a short feature that made Elvis' feelings abundantly clear. 'Information technology was the real thing', he said, summing up both performance and audience response. 'Right from the heart'.

Little Junior Parker, Elvis Presley, Bobby Blue Bland at the WDIA Goodwill Revue Dec 7, 1957.

Little Junior Parker (1932-1971) was a successful and influential Memphis blues singer and musician. He recorded the song Mystery Railroad train in 1953, two years before Elvis fabricated it one of his classic Lord's day singles.

Who'southward the real rex?

While Elvis rocketed to distinction, resentment grew amongst talented musicians whose similar-sounding records weren't getting the aforementioned play. The hip swiveling that merely disgusted conservative whites amounted to theft for blacks. More than i player laid claim to Elvis' gimmicks. Dejection shouter Wynonie 'Mr. Blues' Harris told Sepia: 'I originated that style x years ago. The current crop of shouters are rank impostors. They accept no correct to call themselves the kings of stone and ringlet. I am the rex of rock and curlicue'. In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, guitarist Calvin New born said Elvis hung out in a black bar outside Memphis where he played. 'He would sit there and scout me every Wednesday and Friday dark', he said. 'I'd wiggle my legs and swivel my hips and brand love to the guitar'. In 1956, the Amsterdam News said Elvis had 'copied Bo Diddley's style to the letter'. Flamboyant vocalist Little Richard pointed out stinging economical disparities: 'Elvis was paid $25,000 for doing iii songs in a pic and I only got $5,000, and if it wasn't for me, Elvis would starve'.

Theft

Ane of the favorite arguments of the anti-Elvis cadre is that one of his most memorable recordings, Hound Domestic dog, was 'stolen' from Big Mama Thornton, an incredibly talented black blues vocalizer who recorded her sultry, simmering version in 1953. Contrary to popular belief, Hound Canis familiaris was not some long-lost song of the back bayou, just a Lieber and Stoller composition. So, technically, if you follow this line, both Elvis and Big Mama Thornton 'stole' the song from two white, New York Jews. For shame!

I can't recollect a fourth dimension when covering a recording by another artist was considered 'stealing' -- this would mean that when Blind Willie McTell recorded Dying Crapshooter'south Blues he was maliciously stealing (the white) Irving Mills'south St. James Infirmary. For that matter, both the American white Mills and the American blackness McTell 'stole' the song from the old British folk ballad The Unfortunate Rake, popular in the belatedly 1700s.

This argument falls autonomously upon fifty-fifty a brief investigation, and with it the entire 'Elvis stole the black man'south sound' argument put forth by Mos Def, Chuck D., and hundreds of guilty white hippies over the concluding fifty years. There is no 'stealing' in terms of folk music: the stew of racial, social, and (most importantly) aural traditions that constitutes American roots music cannot be reduced to simple black and white, moralistic terms.

[Jackie Wilson : 'A lot of people take defendant Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, nearly every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis'.]

Asked to characterize his singing fashion when he first presented himself for an audition at the Sunday recording studio in Memphis, Elvis said that he sang all kinds of music - 'I don't sound like nobody'. This, as it turned out, was far more than the blowing of an 18-twelvemonth-old who had never sung in public before. It was in fact as succinct a definition equally one might get of the autonomous vision that fueled his music, a vision that denied distinctions of race, of form, of category, that embraced every kind of music equally, from the highest upwards to the everyman down.

Only Elvis too couldn't modify the times

In the same month of the Sepia article, vocalizer Nat King Cole was infamously attacked onstage by v racists during a concert in Birmingham. The 3,000 white audience members booed the assailants, but did non intervene during the beating, which the men claimed was to protest 'bop and Negro music'.

Well actually Elvis did, he started a revolution, it just took some time, and is still in progress. Elvis did every bit much as anyone to progress integration, only past integrating music and defying the institution.

When the 'establishment' accused Elvis Presley of being vulgar, of being deliberately sexual, they did not mean this. This was the encompass for what was really meant, what was actually feared, and that was thatElvis would lead to equal rights and racial integration. And not simply Elvis whatever white person singing rock 'n' roll. Carl Perkins was warned to not do his show. Elvis was simply the number one guy and therefore got the nearly attention.

'Had everything else been the aforementioned -- the moves, the clothes, the look -- but Elvis had been a black homo, would white America in the '50s have embraced him with the same enthusiasm?' asks Patricia Turner, co-author (with Gary Alan Fine) in the book 'Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America'. 'The answer is probably no. And in that location's a lot of resentment about that'.

What Elvis believed

Elvis Presley 1954.

Bertrand suggests that Elvis' song choices - such as If I Tin can Dream, Walk A Mile In My Shoes or In the Ghetto - revealed his true feelings.

But the vocalist'southward motion to Hollywood struck many equally an abandonment of his musical roots. Credibility with struggling blackness musicians faded when Elvis jumped to the big screen. 'When he first started out in his career, Presley blurred racial lines', Bertrand said. 'Just later on in his career he became, for lack of a better term, whiter. When he tried to become more middle course, he lost what people perceived were his blackness characteristics'. Subsequently Elvis' death in 1977, white America'south connected idolization of the singer didn't ride well with many blackness people who, specially during the 1980s, saw their contributions to pop music overlooked and underexposed.

Junior Parker

Inferior Parker and Elvis Presley Hollywood Movie Set, 1960s.

Johnny Mathis visits Elvis Presley on the gear up of 'Wild In The Land'.

Continued resentment

In 1990, anti-Elvis sentiment exploded from blackness artists. The group Living Colour lashed out against the music industry through their song Elvis Is Expressionless: 'I've got a reason to believe / We all won't be received at Graceland'. Raging against gang violence, poverty and inequality, rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy shouted what have become some of the grouping's almost enduring lyrics. 'Elvis was a hero to nigh / but he didn't hateful (expletive) to me you run across / Straight up racist, that sucker was unproblematic and plainly / Mother (expletive) him and John Wayne / Cause I'm black and I'one thousand proud, I'thousand ready and hyped plus I'yard amped / Nearly of my heroes don't appear on no stamps'. Recently, Chuck D explained that his assail was against the Elvis whose roots were whitewashed past his legacy. 'The Elvis that died wasn't the same Elvis that was coming upwards', Chuck D said. 'They said he was king. Based on who and what? Based on the quality of the people judging or the quality of his music? What does 'Rex of Stone and Roll' hateful growing upwardly in a blackness household? My Chuck Berry records are still in my house. Little Richard is all the same in the house. Otis Redding and James Brown. The King of what?'

Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, Elvis Presley and co-star Barbara McNair

Gospel vocaliser Mahalia Jackson, Elvis Presley and Modify Of Habit co-star Barbara McNair.

Barbara McNair recalls the visit of Mahalia Jackson : 'Elvis and I were sitting there together and Mahalia came on the set and she asked Elvis if he would participate in a fund-raiser that she was going to organize. Elvis was so gracious, 'Oh, Mrs Jackson, I am then happy to meet y'all, I would dear to do it, simply I still have to inquire the Colonel'. So after she left, he said to me, 'I'll never practise it, the Colonel won't let me', merely he was and then gracious to her, he knew all the

time the Colonel would not let him practise it.

Barbara McNair attended Elvis' concert on August 26, 1969 DS. After introducing the band, Elvis had Barbara McNair stand and introduces her as 'a young lady that I just get through making a picture with chosen 'Change Of Habit', and I constitute her to be one of the nicest, warmest, lovingest people I've ever met'. When audience members complain they could non see her, he has the lights turned back on then she tin can stand upwards over again.

Baton Ward and Elvis Presley

Billy Ward (of Billy Ward and The Dominoes) and Elvis Presley.

Above, it was while watching Baton Ward and The Dominoes in Las Vegas that Elvis first saw Jackie Wilson, a member of the group at that time, perform. Elvis talks nigh Jackie in glowing terms during the famed 'Million Dollar Quartet Session' at Sun Studios on December 4, 1956. Although Elvis did not know his name then, they became good friends.

Rufus Thomas, Jr

Rufus Thomas, Jr and Elvis Presley.

Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 27, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul vocalist and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s.

Losing perspective

Then why didn't the rumor dice? Why did information technology continue to find common acceptance up to, and by, the point that Chuck D of Public Enemy could declare in 1990, 'Elvis was a hero to nigh... directly-up racist that sucker was, simple and apparently'? Chuck D has long since repudiated that view for a more nuanced one of cultural history, but the reason for the rumor's durability, the unassailable logic backside its common acceptance within the black customs rests quite only on the social inequities that have persisted to this twenty-four hours, the fact that nosotros live in a club that is no more perfectly autonomous today than it was l years agone. Equally Chuck D perceptively observes, what does information technology mean, within this context, for Elvis to be hailed as 'rex', if Elvis' enthronement obscures the striving, the aspirations and achievements of and then many others who provided him with inspiration?

Elvis would have been the beginning to agree. When a reporter referred to him as the 'king of rock 'due north' ringlet' at the press conference following his 1969 Las Vegas opening, he rejected the title, equally he always did, calling attention to the presence in the room of his friend Fats Domino, 'one of my influences from manner dorsum'. The larger indicate, of course, was that no one should exist called king; surely the music, the American musical tradition that Elvis so strongly embraced, could stand on its ain by now, subsequently crossing all borders of race, class and fifty-fifty nationality.

Memphis, Elvis' kingdom, is a about perfect reflection of the bug with the music industry and society at large. The Bluff City is known for its blues. Known for its soul. Known for BB King, Isaac Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Booker T. & the MGs, Al Green and 1 of the nearly influential recording studios of all fourth dimension: Stax. While Elvis shrines were popping upwardly all over town, black contributions were being dismantled. The Stax recording studio was demolished in 1989. The same fate nearly befell ane of the Ceremonious Rights era's virtually important landmarks, the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.  Equally much as singer Mavis Staples loved Elvis and his music, his unbridled legacy bothered her. 'What helped Elvis was that when he did interviews, he would tell that he got information technology from blacks', Staples said. 'Now one thing that I could say for myself was that when I came back to Memphis after Stax closed, maybe most five years afterwards, I only saw Elvis. And that'due south when I said, 'look a infinitesimal'. Something should be out here almost Stax. Simply considering it folded doesn't hateful it didn't happen. And the people of Memphis should have remembered all of the music'.

Soul vocalizer Isaac Hayes, back into the limelight subsequently his stint as South Park'southward Chef, said he understands how Elvis' retention became entangled in broader issues of race. 'Elvis was due the respect he had. No animosity. No sour grapes. Elvis was the human', he said. 'The thing was that we didn't get what we (the black artists) deserved. Ignorance is one of the main things. Racism? It'due south one of the factors. I would say it took the whole earth outside of Memphis to recognize what a treasure black Memphis had'.

Regaining perspective

In the past 25 years, the earth has improved for blackness people not simply in the music industry, only in other areas besides. Again, Memphis exemplifies this. Graceland isn't the but tourist attraction anymore.

The Rock and Soul Museum traces the history of the blues. The National Civil Rights Museum (which rescued the Lorraine Motel) depicts the 20th Century's peachy American struggle. And the Stax Museum of American Soul Music is on the original site. Folks in the music industry now have more respect for blackness artists, says Chuck D, including the new artists who seem to be walking in Elvis' shoes.

Muhammad Ali

Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali - February xiv, 1973.

Muhammad Ali : 'Elvis was my close personal friend. He came to my Deer Lake training camp about ii years before he died. He told us he didn't want nobody to bother us.

He wanted peace and quiet and I gave him a cabin in my campsite and nobody even knew it. When the cameras started watching me train, he was upward on the loma sleeping in the cabin. Elvis had a robe made for me. I don't adore nobody, just Elvis Presley was the sweetest, most humble and nicest man yous'd want to know'.

Muhammad Ali wearing the robe given by Elvis. March 31, 1974.

Elvis and Ali: Ii Sides of the Aforementioned Coin

If ever in that location were a modern parallel, white rapper Eminem is a shoo-in. Like Elvis, Eminem grew upwards poor and honed his souvenir by studying black music and civilisation. Like Elvis, he's popular with whites. Like Elvis, he's become 1 of the most successful in the business concern. And like Elvis, Eminem has caught the interim problems.

Eminem doesn't hesitate to indicate out the irony on his latest album The Eminem Show, produced past rapper and mentor Dr. Dre. 'I'thou not the first king of controversy / I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley / To practise black music so selfishly / And apply it to get myself wealthy (Hey) / There's a concept that works'.

Chuck D, a founding begetter of hip-hop and popular musicologist, said that accepting Elvis, and by extension other white crossover artists, might be easier for black Americans now that black artists are getting more credit and exposure.  Several years ago, the Fox Television set network sent him to Graceland to do a blackness-perspective news story about Elvis. The assignment opened his eyes. 'Elvis had to come through the streets of Memphis and turn out black crowds earlier he became famous', Chuck D said. 'It wasn't similar he cheated to get at that place. He was a bad-ass white boy. Only like Eminem is doing today. The thing about today is that Eminem has more respect for black artists and black people and culture today than a lot of black artists themselves. He has a better knowledge where information technology comes from. Elvis had a great respect for black folk at a time when black folks were considered niggers, and who gave a damn near nigger music?'

Despite the efforts by historians, musicians and corporate executives, getting the word out ways reaching ane person at a time. Hip-hop vocalizer Mary J. Blige apologized afterwards singing Blue Suede Shoes on VH1's Divas Alive. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 'I prayed about it (performing the song) because I know Elvis was a racist. Merely that was merely a song VH1 asked me to sing. It meant nix to me. I didn't wear an Elvis flag. I didn't stand for Elvis that twenty-four hour period. I was just doing my job like everybody else'. [This makes her a racist!!!!]

Jackie Wilson

Jackie Wilson & Elvis Presley : Baronial 20, 1974.

Before his death, Rufus Thomas gave an interview to the TV program American Routes, which aired on WKNO. The former WDIA disc jockey and legendary Stax vocalizer said: 'Well a lot of people said Elvis stole our music. Stole the blackness human'south music. The blackness man, white man, has got no music of their ain. Music belongs to the universe'. Thomas went on to say that he played Elvis' tunes on the radio until the plan director told him to cease considering black people didn't want to hear them. Then Elvis showed up at a WDIA fund-raising issue for black handicapped children. 'When Elvis wiggled that leg, the oversupply went basics. He walked right off the stage and people were storming that stage. The next day I started back to playing Elvis again. Going to show you that no one person can tell you lot what another group might like'.

While visiting Memphis, Tennessee, in the leap of 1957, Ivory Joe Hunter was invited by Elvis Presley to visit Graceland. The two spent the solar day together, singing 'I Almost Lost My Heed' and other songs together. Hunter commented, 'He is very spiritually minded ... he showed me every courtesy, and I think he'south one of the greatest'. Joe was a prolific songwriter. Some estimates say that he has written more than seven,000 songs. Elvis Presley put 2 of them into the top twenty: My Wish Came True and Own't That Loving You Baby.

Elvis and Roy Hamilton

During Elvis' 1969 Memphis recording sessions at American Sound Studios, Elvis was thrilled to notice that his boyhood idol Roy Hamilton would be working at the same studio during the 24-hour interval (Elvis' sessions were usually at night) and Elvis presented Roy with a beautiful new song 'Angelica' that he was going to record himself. The song turned out to be the single released from the session. Sadly information technology would be Hamilton's final equally he suffered a stroke latter that twelvemonth. It was a Roy Hamilton R&B tune, 'Without A Song' that Elvis famously quoted for his acceptance speech at the U.S. Jaycees' X Outstanding Young Men of 1970 dinner.

Roy Hamilton and Elvis Presley, American Studios, 1969.

Quotes about Elvis

Muhammad Ali : 'Elvis was my shut personal friend. He came to my Deer Lake training camp about two years before he died. He told united states he didn't desire nobody to bother us.

He wanted peace and quiet and I gave him a cabin in my camp and nobody even knew information technology. When the cameras started watching me railroad train, he was upwards on the hill sleeping in the cabin. Elvis had a robe made for me. I don't adore nobody, but Elvis Presley was the sweetest, most apprehensive and nicest human being yous'd want to know'.

Jackie Wilson : 'A lot of people accept accused Elvis of stealing the black human being's music, when in fact, almost every blackness solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis'. In Elvis Presley, Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, author Peter Guralnick describes the coming together between the ii backstage at The Trip: 'In between sets Elvis finally got the opportunity to run into Jackie and limited his unreserved admiration for Wilson's talent. With all he had going for him, Elvis said, he could see no reason why Jackie shouldn't be the number 1 singer in the globe'. It was a wonderful tribute which Jackie would have appreciated. Jackie's drummer Jimmy Smith recalls; 'Elvis came to the club in a white adjust and a white Rolls Royce. I said, 'That man'south got style, ain't he?' Jackie said of Elvis' visit; 'Elvis did me a nice favour one time. I was in Hollywood, California, playing a club called The Trip and we were having a lilliputian difficulty getting people to come up out at that item fourth dimension. So he came out twice for me and, well, you couldn't get in. They said if Elvis goes, well ... hey, let's get'.

Elvis invited Jackie out to the movie gear up to meet him. Jackie took upwards the offering, visiting Elvis at MGM, where they had photos taken like two sometime friends. Elvis signed the photo for Jackie, writing 'Jackie, you take a friend forever, Elvis'. Jackie carried the photo everywhere thereafter; it was a treasure. [When Jackie had a stroke in 1975 leaving him unable to perform and hospitalised, Elvis covered a large proportion the medical bills.]

Jackie Wilson and Elvis Presley.

Sonny West, who was a close friend of Elvis' and ane of his inner circle for many years, said; 'Elvis loved Billy Ward, Billy Daniels, Billy Eckstine, the Inkspots - he loved all of them. He took something from all of them and it all came together in his vocalism at different times. Jackie was rhythm and blues; Elvis would tell you that the influence of gospel singing and rhythm and dejection helped form his style of singing. And what came out was rock 'n' ringlet ... somehow they got together and you had rock 'n' roll.

James Dark-brown : 'I wasn't just a fan, I was his blood brother. He said I was good and I said he was expert; nosotros never argued about that. Elvis was a difficult worker, dedicated, and God loved him. Last fourth dimension I saw him was at Graceland. We sang Former Blind Barnabus together, a gospel song. I love him and promise to see him in sky. There'll never be another like that soul blood brother'. [James was the get-go entertainer to arrive at Elvis' funeral.]

James Brownish : 'Nosotros were friends for a long time, for twenty years. And he told me, he'd ride effectually Memphis effectually the streets he'd come up up in, all alone at dark. Ride around on his motorbike when he was sure the residual of the world was asleep, just kind of hauntin' them places he hung effectually in every bit a kid. He was a country boy'. And as merely James Brown could say, 'Elvis and I are the only true American originals. I beloved him and hope to come across him in heaven. There'll never be another like that soul brother'. [James Chocolate-brown was and so moved by Elvis' death that he requested, and was allowed, time lone with Elvis as he lay in his coffin at Graceland.]

Al Green : 'Elvis had an influence on everybody with his musical approach. He broke the ice for all of us'.

Eddie Spud : 'That's my idol, Elvis Presley. If y'all went to my house, you'd run across pictures all over of Elvis. He's only the greatest entertainer that e'er lived. And I retrieve information technology's because he had such presence. When Elvis walked into a room, Elvis Presley was in the f***ing room. I don't give a f*** who was in the room with him ...

Question to Eddie Murphy by Rolling Stone Magazine November 9, 2011.

Accept you had to defend your Elvis fandom to African-Americans who recollect he was racist?

Eddie Murphy : 'The big myth in the African-American community was that he said that the but thing black folks could do for him was shine his shoes and buy his records. People liked him when they were young, so said, 'I don't like him because he said that', and I said, 'He never even said that'.

B.B. King :'I remember Elvis as a young homo hanging effectually the Sun studios. Fifty-fifty so, I knew this kid had a tremendous talent.

He was a dynamic young boy. His phraseology, his way of looking at a vocal, was as unique as Sinatra's. I was a tremendous fan, and had Elvis lived, there would have been no cease to his creativity'.

B.B. King : 'I knew Elvis earlier he was popular. He used to come up around and exist around us a lot. I can recall once or twice when we met down at Club Handy on Beale Street. Elvis at heart was very religious and I call back that throughout his career he couldn't assist just let it come up out and you can hear it'.

Sam Phillips : 'The lack of prejudice on the part of Elvis Presley had to exist 1 of the biggest things that could have happened to us'.

Dudley Brooks : a Los Angeles pianoforte player who worked on Presley recording sessions. 'He faces everybody as a human'. 'I never heard of the remark, simply even and then I can't imagine Presley saying that, not knowing him the way I practice'.

Fiddling Richard : 'Oh I love Elvis! He was my baby. Elvis only took, Elvis but took his um, sense of dressin' and the bass, and the um, oh Elvis was alright I loved him.

Elvis was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music'. 'Elvis was an integrator. Elvis was a approval'.

Sammy Davis Jr visits Elvis Presley on the set of Rex Creole 1958.

Sammy Davis Jr with Elvis Presley, backstage, Opening Night 1969.

Sammy Davis Jr with Elvis Presley, backstage, Opening Night 1969.

Sammy Davis Jr.

Sammy Davis Jr : 'I have a respect for Elvis and my friendship. It ain't my business what he did in private. The but thing I want to know is, 'Was he my friend?', 'Did I enjoy him as a performer?', 'Did he give the world of entertainment something?' - and the answer is YES on all accounts. The other jazz just don't matter'. 'Early somebody told me that Elvis was black. And I said 'No, he's white but he'southward downward-home'. And that is what it's all about. Not being black or white it'south existence 'downward-dwelling' and which part of downward-home you come up from'.

'On a scale of one to 10, I would rate Elvis eleven'.

Sammy Davis Jr with Elvis Presley, backstage, Opening Night 1969.

Lionel Rose: 'I was punching a heavy pocketbook in a gym in Fifty.A., and I hear a voice sing out, 'Hey, Lionel! What'south doin'?' And it was Elvis himself'. 'I was in awe of him, simply he said he was in awe of me'.

Lionel Rose and Elvis Presley

Lionel Rose and Elvis Presley meet on the set of The Trouble With Girls 1969.

Chuck Berry : 'Describe Elvis Presley? He was the greatest who always was, is, or will e'er be'.

Cissy Houston : 'Elvis loved gospel music. He was raised on it. And he really did know what he was talking about. He was singing Gospel all the time - almost anything he did had that flavour ...'

'Y'all can't become away from what your roots are'.

Ernest Withers : He was a mild tempered, repose, nice guy. He treated everyone the aforementioned. There take been rumors most him, saying that he said 'The merely thing blacks tin do for me is shine my shoes'. At present, I don't believe that. I never saw him act in anyway like that'. 'I overheard i of Elvis' friends at the time ask Elvis 'Why exercise you call him 'mister' -- he'southward merely a barbecue guy?' Elvis looked at him and said 'He's a man'. 'That', Withers says, 'Was the humility in his temperament'. 'Elvis was a great man and did more for ceremonious rights than people know. To telephone call him a racist is an insult to us all'.

Jake Hess, the incomparable lead singer for the Statesmen Quartet and i of Elvis' lifelong influences, pointed out: 'Elvis was ane of those artists, when he sang a vocal, he just seemed to live every discussion of it. There's other people that have a vox that'due south mayhap as nifty or greater than Presley'south, but he had that certain something that everybody searches for all during their lifetime'.

To exercise justice to that souvenir, to do justice to the spirit of the music, nosotros have to extend ourselves sometimes across the narrow confines of our own experience, nosotros have to challenge ourselves to embrace the democratic principle of the music itself, which may in the end be its nearly precious souvenir.

Jim Brown with Elvis Presley

They've had swell admiration for each other for years, but recently Jim Brown, the fabulous gridiron hero and currently western actor, dropped in on Elvis Presley, and they had a long visit betwixt scenes of Roustabout which stars Presley. Big Jim is currently working in Rio Conchos which stars Richard Boone.

Jim Dark-brown with Elvis Presley.

(Impulsive) Elvis Presley Gives $11,500 Gift

James Chocolate-brown and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali
Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali : Two Sides of the Aforementioned Coin
Elvis Presley and Sammy Davis Jr
Jackie Wilson and Elvis Presley
Lionel Rose and Elvis Presley
How Did Elvis Get Turned into a Racist? - Past Peter Guralnick
Elvis' musical style, as a musician and touch equally a vocalist and stage performer
Ernest Withers : Center on Elvis : Camera Captured Pictures Of Early Elvis
Elvis Presley and Stephanie Spruill back stage at Ceasers Palace
Eddie Tater on Racism and Elvis

How Elvis Fought Racism, Ethnic Discrimination (By an Arab-American, 2007)

Michael Saba : Arab News : Inquire anybody in Memphis who knew Elvis and they will tell you that he was a nice polite beau who had cracking respect for his parents and friends. He likewise fought quietly against racial and ethnic discrimination. He was very patriotic and extremely generous with his money, peculiarly for humanitarian causes that related to Memphis. For example, Elvis was regular contributor to the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, ALSAC, the fund-raising arm for St. Jude Children'southward Research Hospital in Memphis. This infirmary is the premier children'due south cancer infirmary in the world and was founded by Americans of Arab descent in honor of their Arab-American heritage. All children treated at St. Jude are treated at no cost to the parent or kid. Farid'south father was one of the founders of ALSAC and the hospital. He will also be remembered as someone who supported humanitarian causes that honored Arab-American heritage.

Was Elvis Racist?

Shortly afterwards Elvis died, James Dark-brown recorded Love Me Tender equally the b-side of his hitting record The Spank. Brown did this touching spoken intro: 'I want to talk most a practiced friend I had for a long time and a human being I still love, Brother Elvis Presley. Yous know, if he were here right now, I'm sure he would say the aforementioned thing for me. I loved the human and he was truly the male monarch of rock and gyre. We've e'er had kind of a toss upwardly. Elvis and I. The Rex of Rock And Roll and I'grand the King of Soul. So I wanted to say this for the people, Elvis, and myself'.

Dark-brown and so sings Love Me Tender. Was Elvis a racist? No way.

Only we hope we have explained some of why some people similar to claim he is.

Remarkable stats for our Elvis Presley and Racism : The Ultimate, Definitive Guide

Feedback

Comments : Highest regards to the Author. At that place is a lot of work here.

It is also a very fine read.

Thank you. I continue to exist very proud of our site. Angela Greenham [Australia]

Comments : Congratulations on your article, Elvis Presley and Racism. This was the about all-encompassing and definitive commodity I have e'er read on this subject. Strangely, the rumour does still persist, but I have ever known Elvis was not racist. Cheers for the wonderful task yous accept done in writing this commodity.

Linda Sukla [United states]

Comments : Actually prissy article. I do believe Elvis had genuine respect for people regardless of their colour, and that's i of the features I nigh admire in him. Maria Carvalho [Brazil]

Comments : I recollect reading a commodity years agone when Elvis was to perform in the Houston Asterdome. There was an issue of the direction with Elvis' backup singers the Sweetness Inspirations. Elvis said very sternly if they tin't perform I won't perform. I know that Elvis Presley was no racist. Daniel Craycraft

Comments : David ... a very comprehensive piece on a perplexing myth. I really enjoyed your commodity. It reminds me, that I had been personally challenged and confronted by this very myth .... in the Operating Room where I worked for 47yrs. My OR room was known as 'Graceland 2'... past many folks, because, if you walked into my room ... Elvis would most likely exist singing!! Ane day, about 6 or 7 years ago , a immature black surgeon told me, (after I asked him if he enjoyed Elvis) "I like some of his songs but, ... You lot know he was 'RACIST!' I looked him straight in the eye and said, 'I know that Elvis was Non racist. All y'all have to do is read a little virtually Elvis and you will know that that is Not true'. 'I have read it ... I read in a book, (in black and white) that he was a Racist', he replied, with a grinning on his confront. As if , to say ... 'Gotcha!!' A perfect example of what ane simple ... Lie ... tin do ... particularly if printed! I am sure the young dr. in question withal feels the same ... wish I could present your article to him, as a rebuttal to what he had read, then long ago! TYVM! Clementine, St. Louis, U.s.

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Source: https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis-not-racist.shtml

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