FBI files on Elvis Presley FBI files on Elvis Presley The FBI Files on Elvis Presley consist of records kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning Elvis Presley. These records consist of 683 pages of copies of letters from members of the public commenting on his performances, newspaper clippings, and documents reporting that Presley was the target of extortion attempts. As rock singer Elvis Presley was a very popular star, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI had many files on him copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and today archived on CD-ROM. According to Thomas Fensch, the texts from the FBI reports dating from 1956
Elvis Presley / But he never meant shit to me / Straight-up racist that sucker was / Simple and plain". The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African-American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgement and commercial success largely denied his black peers. Into the 21st century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents. Notable among African-American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost