In 1992 a black man went down to Memphis, TN and took 2nd place in the Elvis Impersonator World Championships. He came in 2nd again in 1997. When it happened a third time in 1999, some said he'd never actually win. After all, it was the heart of the deep south, in the city where Martin Luther King was assassinated, against a hundred other white Elvises. Still, he persisted. In 2003, Robert Washington became the only black man ever to win the Images of the King World Championships.