The M Files: Elvis the Racial Integrator


"All Techniques Into One"

Elvis the Integrator

Elvis was a force for racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s

With the cross-over from rhythm and blues to rock 'n' roll, Elvis helped to bring black music into the mainstream and foster a greater appreciation of black culture. He influenced the attitudes of a whole generation of young people.
1969 Houston Astrodome
When the Houston Astrodome management told Elvis to "leave his black girls at home" Elvis refused to do the show unless his singers were included and treated with proper respect.
Andrus Sherman
Elvis was the first person to employ a black gospel singer in a southern gospel group.

Elvis with Muhammad Ali, 1973	Elvis with Jackie Wilson, 1966	Elvis with Jackie Wilson, 1974	Elvis with Fats Domino
Elvis with Mahalia Jackson	Elvis with Sammy Davis Jr.	Elvis with Rufus Thomas	Elvis with Jim Brown

Quote from Elvis Presley Enterprises "Fact of the Week" Newsletter, 17 april 2002

Elvis and Brotherhood

On April 4, 1968 civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis took the news very hard and was ashamed that that such a horrendous thing could happen in his hometown. Elvis admired Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech and having it memorized, would often repeat the speech to his friends as he often did the words of great men. Author Michael Bertrand in his book RACE, ROCK & ELVIS talks of how Elvis had great respect for the black musicians who were an important influence on his musical style. The passage is quoted in the box below:

Emerson (Billy the Kid Emerson - a black Sun Records artist) recalled that although most white musicians in Memphis did not associate with, or even talk to, their black counterparts, Elvis was different. He "was the sweetest kid you'd ever want to meet," B.B. King concurred. Although he (B.B. King) routinely felt "a little chill" among many white musicians, "Elvis was different. He was friendly .. .and always called me sir. I liked that."

"Presley makes no secret of his respect for the work of Negroes," TAN magazine trumpeted in 1957, "nor of their influence on his own singing. Furthermore, he does not shun them, either in public or private." That was part of the reason that Eldridge Cleaver once suggested that Presley, in openly acknowledging those who had influenced him, had "dared to do in the light of day what America had been doing in the sneak-thief anonymity of night --- [he] consorted on a human level with blacks." Such public behavior, although not radical ethically or politically, contradicted white decorum in the South. In many ways, Elvis Presley, and rock 'n' roll hurled southern history and tradition out the window.

On June 5, 1968, while working on pre-production for his 1968 TV special, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Elvis was beside himself and could talk about nothing else except the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death two months earlier. According to Peter Guralnick's CARELESS LOVE, director Steve Binder was moved by Elvis' strong feelings. Passage from the book: "That was something Binder wanted to get into the special. 'I wanted to let the world know that here was a guy who was not prejudiced, who was raised in the heart of prejudice, but who was really above all that. Part of the strength that I wanted to bring to the show was [that sense of] compassion, that this was somebody to look up to and admire.'" Binder did add this element to the 1968 TV special with a song he had Earl Brown compose overnight. A song that would say all the things Elvis stood for, "peace and brotherhood". As Elvis recorded the closing song, "If I Can Dream", Steve Binder recalled, " Elvis asked that the lights be dimmed for the final take, both in the studio and in the control room. ' I think he was oblivious to everything else in the universe.'"

Peter Guranick sums it up, " ... it is not the lyrics that command our attention over the gulf of years. It is, rather, the pain and conviction and raw emotion in Elvis' voice as he sings of a world 'where all my brothers walk hand in hand' and almost screams out the last line: 'Please/let my dream/come true/ Right now.'"

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