Elvis and Race Relations

 Warm Up:            

1) Question: Do you think Elvis Presley could have helped with race relations between blacks and whites in the 1950’s and 1960’s? How?​    

Guided Practice:            

1) Play the video clip "American Segregation," an excerpt from the 1987 PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize, which examines the state of race relations in the United States in 1954, on the eve of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of  Education.Discuss: 

                 a) What was segregation? What were Jim Crow laws?

                  b) How did many whites feel about socializing with African Americans?

                  c) What did the Supreme Court rule in Brown v. Board of Education?

            d) How did many whites affected by the ruling react to the decision?            

2) Display the map of Tupelo, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis Presley’s birthplace and the city where he attended high school. 

3) What kind of music they imagine someone growing up in those places in the late 1940s and early 1950s might have listened to. I will play two examples for you.

4)  Look at the picture of Bill Monroe and listen to the excerpt from Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1946). Discuss: 

            a) How would you describe this music?  5)  Look at the picture of Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and listen to the excerpt from “That’s All Right” (1947), and discuss:

            a) How would you describe this music?

            b) How is it different from the first song?

            c) Why might a white southern boy, or any other teenager, have listened to this kind of music? What was appealing about it?

            d) Why might white teenagers, especially in the South, have been discouraged from listening to this kind of music?

            e) What barriers might have prevented artists such as “Big Boy” Crudup from becoming major recording stars in the late 1940s and early 1950s? Why might certain radio stations not have played their songs? 6)  Distribute Handout 1: Sun Records and Race Records. Ask for volunteers to read it aloud, one student per paragraph. Instruct all students to underline key words and phrases as they listen and follow.

7)  Examine the picture of Elvis’s first single, released in 1954. 8)  Listen to the excerpt from Elvis’ recording of “That’s All Right” and discuss: 

            a) How is the recording similar to/different from “Big Boy” Crudup’s recording of the same song? 9)  Watch the video clip of Dewey Phillips, "Red Hot and Blue,"  Phillips was a highly popular disc jockey in Memphis who was known for his extroverted style and who played records by both black and white artists at a time when most radio shows catered specifically to either a black audience or a white one.

Distribute Handout 2: "That’s All Right" on Memphis Radio, July 1954. Ask for a volunteer to read it aloud. All students should underline key words and phrases as they listen and follow. Discuss:

            a) How did the audience react to the record?

            b) Why might listeners have thought Elvis was African-American? Why would it have mattered in a southern state in 1954?            c) In 1954, how could a resident of Memphis have known the race of a person simply by knowing where he went to high school?

            d) Why do you think Dewey Phillips wanted the audience to know that Elvis was white? 10)  Listen to the excerpt of Elvis’ recording of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and discuss:

            a) How is the recording similar to/different from Bill Monroe’s recording of the same song?

            b) Does this recording seem to have been at all influenced by Rhythm and Blues – in other words, by African-American music? If so, in what way? 11)  Why do you think Elvis put these two particular songs on the same record? Does the appearance of these two songs on the same record in any way reflect what was happening in the United States in 1954, particularly in terms of race relations? If so, how?

Summary Activity:

1. While the audience reaction to Elvis’ first single was largely very positive, many people, particularly in positions of authority, were angered by Elvis and his music. Display the two quotes below:

"The big show was provided by Vancouver teenagers, transformed into writhing, frenzied idiots of delight by the savage jungle beat music."

-- Review of an Elvis Presley concert in The Vancouver Sun, September 3, 1957

"When our schools and centers stoop to such things as ‘rock and roll’ tribal rhythms, they are failing seriously in their duty."

-- Letter from Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, banning Catholic school students from attending Presley concert, Feb. 28, 1957