Elvis’s Graceland spray-painted with ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘defund the police’

Elvis Presley’s iconic Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn., was graffitied with messages in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and defunding the Memphis Police Department.

Photos posted by local news affiliate Fox 13 on Twitter revealed messages spray-painted across the estate’s outer walls. Similar graffiti also appeared overnight at the Levitt Shell, a local concert venue, according to the Daily Memphian.

Crews are cleaning up after someone spray painted the walls of Graceland with messages like “Defund MPD” “Arrest Breonna Taylor’s murderers” and “BLM” and more. I’ll give you a live look on @FOX13Memphis midday. pic.twitter.com/iggrafPLb8

— Shelia O’Connor FOX13 (@SheliaOConnor) September 1, 2020

Levitt Shell’s executive director told the Daily Memphian that the clean up costs would only complicate financial problems brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has mostly ended large public events across the nation.

Protests in Memphis have continued for weeks along with other demonstrations in cities across the U.S. in response to the deaths of several Black Americans during encounters with police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as the late-August shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.

The shooting of a Black 17-year-old by a U.S. Marshals task force at a service station in Memphis in late August also reignited protests in the city.