Elvis Presley’s pink Cadillac at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
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Memphis 2: Elvis Presley & Martin Luther King

May 9, 2024 /

Beale Street is alive any time of day, but away from there the rest of Memphis is as quiet a city as you could ever find. Sidewalks are spacious and largely empty, streetcar seats have only a handful of takers and traffic is sparse – there never seems to be any congestion anywhere. The “home of the blues” buzzes but the rest of the city snoozes. There’s a kind of Sunday morning feel regardless of what day of the week it is.

Those places where the crowds are always to be found are the blues clubs and the barbecue restaurants, though twice daily at 11am and 5pm people also gather inside the Peabody Hotel to view a spectacle which is as oddball as any English eccentricity you would care to name. Crowds assemble, the red carpet is rolled out, the uniformed master of ceremonies cranks up the anticipation…then eventually the celebrities from the penthouse emerge from the elevator and walk the red carpet route to the fountain in the lobby.

Peabody Hotel preparing for the march of the ducks,Memphis Tennessee
Peabody Hotel preparing for the march of the ducks,Memphis Tennessee
Peabody Hotel preparing for the march of the ducks,Memphis Tennessee
Out comes the red carpet

Who are these revered celebrities? Ducks. Ducks who live in the penthouse but occupy the fountain and its pond from 11 till 5 each day, the trips back and forth being the centre of much attention and much pomp and ceremony, apparently this is a ritual which has played out for over 80 years. Not with the same ducks, obviously. It’s all a bit bizarre!

Peabody Hotel and the march of the ducks,Memphis Tennessee
Peabody Hotel and the march of the ducks,Memphis Tennessee
Peabody ducks in the fountain, Mamphis Tennessee
Here come the celebrities

Less of a trivia and a much more influential part of the history of Memphis are the stories told in the Civil Rights Museum.

Back in the 1960s life in the southern states was on an ever sharpening knife edge. Nowhere else in the USA was as reluctant to adopt desegregation and repeal the Jim Crow laws, nowhere else was the reaction to change so violent and so animated. It’s unbelievable to discover that kangaroo courts held by the Ku Klux Klan to try those perceived to be black activists, were actually given credence by State Police and State Governors, who turned a blind eye to punishments meted out to those “found guilty”.

Civil rights museum in Memphis Tennessee
Exhibit in the Civil Rights museum

But the rumble was becoming a roar, the support for the Civil Rights movement was gathering pace, and the days of the Jim Crow laws were numbered.

All around America things were changing, but still the southern states resisted. Racial tension spilled into violence in Alabama as separatist vigilantes sought their own kind of justice and launched attacks on peaceful rights marches. Black youths staged sit-ins at whites only cafes, barring the way for whites to place orders, often joined by white students sympathetic to the cause. “Stand up by sitting down”, implored the posters.

Civil rights museum in Memphis Tennessee
Inside the museum

In Montgomery in 1955, a lady named Rosa Parks had refused to surrender her bus seat to a white lady, and was arrested and thrown into a police cell for her trouble. Rosa was to become a heroine and a symbol for reform, and the consequent boycott of the bus service by the entire black community brought the city’s finances to its knees.

Civil rights museum in Memphis Tennessee
Civil rights museum in Memphis Tennessee
Inside the museum

Music, as ever, was becoming a vehicle for the narrative. The arrival of rock’n’roll had given a rebellious voice to youth for the first time ever; now it was becoming the norm for teenagers to have their own views, opinions and politics, often in opposition to parental values. This was new territory, the music was new territory, the two issues were becoming inextricably entwined.

Civil rights museum in Memphis Tennessee
Inside the museum

And so to February 1968. A strike by the sanitation workers of Memphis, triggered entirely by a desire for better pay and better terms, was turned into a racial battle by city authorities, the majority of sanitation workers being black. Developments attracted the attention of the leader of the Civil Rights movement, Dr Martin Luther King. The “I Am A Man” marches gathered pace, the signature phrase conceived to demonstrate that black workers were people, not the property of the employer.

I AM A MAN street art in Memphis Tennessee
Street art in South Main Street

Dr King, preparing his speech to the workers, chatted with colleagues in his room at the Lorraine Motel, the only Memphis hotel which catered for blacks, then stepped out on to the balcony… Shots rang out from a boarding house across the block, Dr King fell to the ground, slain in cold blood. From that moment, the course of history was changed, and once again Memphis was host to seismic storylines of social history.

Lorraine Motel and the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee
Lorraine Motel and the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee

Lorraine Motel

The former Lorraine Motel is now the Civil Rights Museum, which tells the whole story of those struggles in graphic detail, a story which ends at Room 306, King’s room, restored to exactly how it would have been on the fateful night of April 4th, 1968. It’s a powerful, hard hitting museum.

Lorraine Motel, room 306 and the spot where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.
Room 306, site of the assassination

Back to Elvis and so, finally, to Graceland. The Presley home is a major tourist attraction, supposedly the most visited former private home on Earth. Whilst being obviously impressive, Graceland is not a gigantic mansion and is smaller than we had imagined, though of course the grounds and the former possessions speak of immense wealth. Gold plated seat belts in your private aeroplane, for instance.

Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee
Graceland
Lounge and music room in Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee
Inside Graceland
Dining room in Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee
Graceland dining room
Pool room in Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee
Games room, Graceland
Jungle room in Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee
Jungle room , Graceland

Otherwise it’s all pretty much as you would expect: gold records, stage outfits, Elvis’s cars, motor bikes and aeroplanes and many stories of family life at Graceland. It’s a highly eulogistic and adoring display, presenting Elvis not just as the iconic immortal star that he was, but also as a saintly family man who never put a foot wrong. A story with a couple of chapters missing, maybe. 

Elvis Presley’s Pink Cadillac at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Elvis’s pink Cadillac
Elvis Presley’s stage outfits at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Elvis’s costumes
Elvis Presley’s stage outfits at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Elvis Presley’s stage outfits at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Elvis Presley’s stage outfits at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Elvis Presley’s stage outfits at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee

More costumes

The house is fascinating, not least because Elvis’s obsession with constant change created themed rooms such as the “jungle room” modelled on his favourite vacation destination of Hawaii, and ahead-of-its-time multi screen TV rooms. Such is the extent of the entire Graceland tour – house, grounds, museum, cars, aeroplanes – that it takes just shy of three and a half hours to complete it. Throughout that entire time I spot just one tiny reference to Col Tom Parker, interesting but perhaps not so surprising.

Some of Elvis Presley’s discs at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
A section of Elvis’s awards collection
Lisa Marie, Elvis Presley’s aeroplane now at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
The Presleys’ modest family vehicle
Elvis Presley’s grave at Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Lisa Marie Presley’s grave at Graceland Memphis Tennessee
Final resting place for the family

It’s time to move on from Memphis, reflect on all that we have learned about the city, its histories and the birth of rock’n’roll, with one last night on Beale Street and one last blues session. 

Next stop Nashville. 

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