SOUTHERN CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY TOUR MAY 2021

Day 4 Memphis

Graceland

The Mississippi Delta
Was shining like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the Civil War

I’m going to Graceland, Graceland
Memphis, Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland
Poor boys and pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland . . .

Graceland /Paul Simon

Elvis was a musical giant who changed the world and blew past many boundaries including the limits of schlocky taste.

But then again

“Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been the Beatles”.

John Lennon

and it turns out his mother, Gladys Presley, was Jewish

Stax Museum of American Soul Music

Between 1957 and 1975 Stax Studios in Memphis recorded artists like James Brown, BB King, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Isaac Hayes, Booker T and the MGs and The Staple Singers. The nearby Lorraine Motel, was one of the safe places for Afro American travelers listed in the Green Book. Artists working at Stax would stay at the Lorraine Motel and after hours would jam, eat and socialize together while also hanging out with Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders when they were in town.

According to taped interviews that can be heard at the museum, black and white performers, song writers and the owners of Stax Recording Studios describe the studio as a kind of oasis of friendship and tireless creative energy in an otherwise segregated world. They add with deep sadness how that era ended when Dr. King was assassinated and Memphis along with the rest of the country exploded. A posted narrative explains;

“it was not until the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968 that the label explicitly began to grapple with the political, social and cultural issues that affected the lives of those who listened to and purchased the companies records.”