How Did Elvis Presley Changed The Civil Rights Movement?

One of the most memorable songs that was ever written is Hound Dog, written and composed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but people remember the person who put it on the charts, Mr. Elvis Presley. Presley used his infamous style of merging rock and roll with gospel music, a technique that has never been done before the 1950s, and pushed the limits of many Americans by erasing the existing line of “black” and “white” music. Going from poor to riches, Presley changed the view and sight of music. With out Presley music would have stayed segregated, the civil rights movement would not have moved forward in music and that would have slowed down the pace and the building of equal rights. Many great artist and bands would not have been created or lived the life they did without Presley paving the way, bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Prince.
Elvis, a guy who grew up dirt poor showed America that even though you think you are nothing your voice can be as loud as you want it to be (Sarah Brash 69).Presley did not just start out on top.
He had to work hard to become the "King of Rock-n-Roll". Like his father Vernon Presley, Presley lived "above the highway" (Peter Guralnick 10) with his family. Presley was particularly close to his mother growing up because when his twin brother died at birth, his mother and father called him there miracle baby, in account of when he was born he was still alive (Peter Guralnick 17). Over the years Presley became more involved with the church down the road, he became apart of the Sunday gospel choir and he soon became the head tenor in the church. His choir director said
that:

Presley had so much spunk and joy in his voice and when he sung our choir songs he touched all of our families and friends and we knew that he would be very successful and be a great singer when he got older. When there was a song that he had trouble with, he took it home and the next day he would be helping me teach the choir and the difficult transitions in the songs (Peter Guralnick 72).

As Presley got older he became more noticeable and two of the main people that noticed him were Sam Phillips and Dewey Phillips, even though they are both in the same line of business and have the same last name they are not brother, but they became very good friends once they discovered Elvis. Presley was about 17 when Sam and Dewey found him and they all sparked when they were together. When Sam and Dewey booked gigs away from his home in Memphis Tennessee, Presley grew home sick because his mother and he were very close. When he was growing up many people know him as "Elvis the Mama's Boy"(Dave Tianen 1). But Presley looked past that and ignored those comments and focused on his music and the style that he sung.

The style of music that Presley sung was a gospel style and he was put down and ashamed by many people. But there were also people who thought that: from 1956-1958 he completely dominated the best-seller charts and ushered in the age of Rock-n-Roll, opening doors for both white and black rock artists (Encyclopedia Britannica 2).

The Gospel style music is defined as "a soulful style that teaches the doing of Jesus through Music and lyrics" (dictionary.com), and that is exactly what Presley did, but with a little Rock-n-Roll style mixed in which is defined as: A genre of popular music originating in the 1950s; a blend of black rhythm-and- blues with white country-and-western; "rock is a generic term for the range of styles that evolved out of Rock-n-Roll""(dictionary.com).

Many people believe that Presley “stole” the black style of music and BB King stood up for him and said, “Elvis didn’t steal music from anyone…He just had his own interpretation of the music he had grown up on… I think Elvis had integrity” (BB King). Presley was very unique when it cam to a style of music, he did not have a style of music, his music “denied distinctions or race, of class, of category that embraced every kind of music equally, from the highest up to the lowest down” (Peter Guralnick 2). Presley did pick out a certain kind of fan. Such as he did not just play shows for young WHITE girls, he played concerts for all races. It did not matter if his fans were black or if they were white, music was music to Presley(Gilbert B. Rodman).

Presley believed that his music was the start to breaking down barriers of race in restaurants and local bars and dancing joints. When Presley started breaking down the barriers he became a major part of the civil rights music.
“Presley is an important figure in the Civil rights movement because he legitimized black music style and culture for an entire generation of young white Americans” (Dave Tianen 1).

What Dave Tianen is saying is that Presley opened a door to mix culture within black and white teenagers. “Elvis had a very good gift and his gift was being able to sell a black style of music to a white man” (Hedy Weiss 1). This was a good skill to have during the time Presley was selling music because the more you can mix your music into all races was a better marketing skill and also it helps for your music to travel outside of you own community. What was going on with the Civil Rights Movement was blacks started to become more accepted into different community, but they were still outcast in the communities where whites were the dominate color of skin. Most people viewed Presley as a racist and a no good sleaze bag because of the sexual vibe that he let out when he swung his hips and also because most typical white American fathers did not think it was appropriate that a white teenager was sing black style of music.