Article: Elvis Presley was a 'White Negro' first

David Earl Jackson
Tri-State Defender
08-16-1995
Elvis Presley was a 'White Negro' first.

Reflections on rockabilly rebel & Black culture.

By David Earl Jackson

Most Black folk could care less about Elvis Presley, preferring to think of him as a "redneck peckerwood" who launched his career in the Jim Crow 1950s doing "White boy" covers of records made by Black artists such as Big Mama Thornton, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and Junior Parker. And no matter what is said to the contrary, almost every Black person believes Elvis actually said, "All a nigger can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes."

Throughout his career, from his rise as an American icon to his death in 1977, Elvis got ...

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