Graceland Tagged with BLM and Defund Police Graffiti: Elvis Rolls Over in Grave

Is nothing sacred?!?!?!?

Graceland, the Elvis Presley estate that is Memphis, Tennessee’s signature landmark and most popular tourist draw, was hit overnight with “Defund the Police” and “BLM” (Black Lives Matter) graffiti.

Vandals also struck the Levitt Shell in Overton Park, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which is a part of the USA TODAY Network.

The Graceland vandalism was elaborate, with “DEFUND MPD” and “BLM” painted in thick black letters on the sidewalk along Elvis Presley Boulevard, alongside “#DEFUND THE POLICE,” “ABOLISH ICE” (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other slogans sprayed in black and orange letters on the stone wall around the mansion where Elvis lived for 20 years, until his death on Aug. 16, 1977.

The Graceland wall and sidewalk are in plain view of the north-south traffic on the adjacent street. The extent of the graffiti suggests the vandals were on the scene for a relatively long period of time and that multiple people were involved.

“Graceland has no comment.”
David Beckwith
Graceland Spokesperson

At Graceland, the spray-painted slogans covered up many of the hundreds of handwritten messages already on the wall: Words of love and devotion to Elvis, penned in ink, felt-tip marker and paint by fans of the singer, often while standing in line to visit the Elvis grave during the annual “Candlelight Vigil.”

By mid-morning, workers with power-wash equipment were removing the Graceland graffiti.

Also “tagged” overnight by vandals was the large “I (Heart) Memphis” mural on Cooper Avenue at York, near the Memphis Made Brewing brewery, a popular location for selfies and Instagram photos. The graffitists repeated the themes of the other sites (“Eat the Rich,” “BLM”), with a few variations (“F— the DA,” meaning “District Attorney”). Created by artist Brandon Marshall, the mural was commissioned by the UrbanArt Commission and Memphis Tourism as part of a series of Memphis-boosting public artworks.

The instances of vandalism were discovered on “901 Day,” an unofficial celebration of Memphis culture that takes place on Sept. 1, the date that can be rendered numerically as “9/01.”