The wall outside @VisitGraceland in #Memphis where #Elvis fans write their names and tributes to The King was vandalized overnite. #BlackLivesMatter#DefundMPD#AbolishIce & #BreonnaTaylor were spray painted all over the wall.
📸: @BriseidaHolguinpic.twitter.com/xT9gcyQz82— Joyce Peterson (@MemphoNewsLady) September 1, 2020
Graceland is all shook up.
Elvis Presley’s estate was vandalized with “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police” graffiti overnight into Tuesday.
The protest slogans were found spray-painted in black and orange on the stone wall surrounding the King’s mansion, a signature Memphis landmark and major tourist draw, local newspaper The Commercial Appeal reported.
“Abolish ICE” and “F–k Trump” were also among the spray-painted phrases.
The graffiti covered up many of the hundreds of tributes to the music icon handwritten by fans on the wall over the years.
By mid-morning Tuesday, workers with power-wash equipment were removing the slogans, according to the Appeal.
A Graceland spokesman declined to comment on the vandalism.
Another Memphis landmark, historic concert venue the Levitt Shell, was defaced with similar graffiti, including “Eat the Rich” and “Defund MPD [Memphis Police Department].”
The open-air amphitheater in Overton Park was where Presley gave his first paid concert on July 30, 1954.
The rock ‘n’ roll legend lived at Graceland for 20 years, until his death on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42.
The estate — located on a stretch of Highway 51 South named “Elvis Presley Boulevard” — was opened to the public in 1982 and attracts over half a million visitors annually.
