Elvis Presley's Journey To Freedom

When you think about the United States everyone associates it with freedom. Having freedom is the ability to do what one desires, but in the 1950s—and still in many ways today—these freedoms are restricted due to privilege. Specifically, we can see this idea throughout our history by reflecting on musicians we remember and value as a society. Many of these musicians are white men, including the Beatles, Beach Boys, Jerry Lee Louis and Johnny Cash. Often, African American musicians from this time are forgotten or valued less due to the view society had on Race. Furthermore, society’s view of black musicians such as Chuck Berry, place impeding obstacles in their way due to racial inequalities prevalent during the 1950s, which Elvis Presley did not have to face. These inequalities skyrocketed Presley’s career to help him obtain the title of King of rock n roll opposed to Chuck Berry or any other African American musician.
Chuck Berry was born on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis to a
Throughout Elvis’ childhood, despite the low economic status of his family, he had “an avid appetite for music” which included a wide variety of genres such as Black radio (WDIA) and Southern Gospel like The Statesmen. These genres influenced Presley’s early recordings at Sun Records. To satisfy his hunger for music, his parents gave him his first guitar in 1946 for his birthday, because they could not afford a bicycle. He later took this guitar with him when his family moved to Memphis in 1948 to create a better economic situation for their family. Without the move, Elvis Presley would never have received the label of a “white man who could sing like a black man” in Sam Philip’s talent search. Becoming very popular in country music, Presley signed with RCA in 1955 with Col. Tom Parker as his new manager. Parker publicized Presley, booking several TV appearances, including The Ed Sullivan