ELVIS PRESLEY WAS NOT A RACIST The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes. Words attributed to Elvis Presley. Long-standing urban myths and rumors are often the most difficult to dispel, to be sure. And Ive had my share of snickers, head shakes, eye rolls and inevitably this quote thrown at me when Ive mentioned Elvis Presleys name on my list of early musical influences which include Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, B.B. King, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye and Tom Jones. The thing is, Elvis never said those words. The simple fact is they first appeared in print in April 1957 in How Negroes Feel About Elvis, a story in Sepia magazine. The article quotes an anonymous, non-confirmed person on the street who said that he had HEARD that Presley had uttered those words. The rest is history. But thank goodness for the internet and the Age of Information: snopes/music/artists/presley1.asp Elvis Presley; a racist. Quite frankly, it never made any sense to me. How could this man who owed so much to an art form that had its roots so firmly planted in the music of people of African descent be a racist? Not to mention the fact that the great Otis Blackwell co-wrote some of his earliest hits. From all accounts apparently it was his mother, Gladys, (a highly evolved human being who acted as his connection to the universe), who instilled in young Elvis a color blindness from the beginning that carried on throughout his entire career. The Presley’s lived near areas populated by people of African descent and frequently interacted with them as good neighbors should. They were way ahead of their time. Being exposed to multiple cultures without prejudice allowed Elvis to form a style that was unique and all his own. If you don’t find his brand of music pleasing to your ear, I can appreciate that. To each his or her own. However, you cant deny that he made a significant contribution to popular music and to call him a racist is just plain unfair. Therefore, in honor of his 80th birthday, let the record be set straight. And if, as they say, a picture says a worth a thousand words, these pictures should speak volumes. Pictured: Muhammad Ali, BB King, Fats Domino, Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Mathis, Barbara McNair, Mahalia Jackson, Brook Benton, Myrna Smith, Jackie Wilson, Jim Brown, Bobby Blue Bland, Roy Hamilton, Dudley Brooks, Billy Ward and others.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 05:54:40 +0000
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