In his initial rise and even thru his heyday Elvis bought many of his clothes from Lanksy's, a Beale Street Memphis clothing store which primarily catered to black musicians.

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/the_king_and_i_bernard_lansky.shtml#sthash.vArdhTag.dpbs

The Elvis pompadour was also a copy of the black process which itself was a copy of white hairstyles. So there has always been sharing and copying, credited or uncredited, from respect or envy.

To his credit, Elvis was quite open about his musical, performance and sartorial influences. And this wasn't missed by the White Citizen's Councils, who attacked Elvis and rock-n-roll in language that's not too dissimilar to what we hear today.


"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungleā€”as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.