A new Netflix documentary is tackling Elvis Presley's 1968 comeback special that revitalized his faltering career and aired amid racial violence, assassinations and a divided country. The big picture: The documentary to be released Wednesday comes as other recent projects on Elvis have re-examined his role in racial desegregation after previous generations dismissed him as an appropriator of Black art.

As in-depth Netflix film details, his career was in a slump before the show that superfan Bruce Springsteen calls "the rebirthing" of the legend."

Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s famously controlling and bullheaded manager, wanted a more conventional Christmas special, the kind of milquetoast program many other singers had d