The Stevie Wonder Song That Help Pushed MLK Day
The Stevie Wonder Song That Spearheaded Martin Luther King Day
The “Happy Birthday” song is a tune that has been sung across the world translating into different languages and cultures. In 1980, legendary musician Stevie Wonder made a new rendition of the song that was not only a groovy, alternative version of the original— it holds a deeper meaning. One that helped to highlight an honorable day for one of America’s most notable peace figures.
Wonder, an activist in his own right, had lobbied to have Dr. King’s birthday as a holiday in the U.S. In January 1979, on what would’ve been Dr. King’s 50th birthday, the artist performed at the Georgia state capitol building, calling for his birthday to be made into a holiday. Wonder told the concert goers to start calling their congressional representatives to make Dr. King’s birthday an offical day of observance.
Wonder met Dr. King in the 1960s when the singer was a teenager. When he got the idea for the song to honor Dr. King, the singer reached out to Coretta Scott King to tell her of the song and the goal he had in mind for it.
“I said to her, you know, ‘I had a dream about this song. And I imagined in this dream I was doing this song. We were marching, too, with petition signs to make for Dr. King’s birthday to become a national holiday,'” Wonder told CNN in 2011.
After a four-month concert tour across the United States that doubled as a King Day awareness campaign, his rendition of “Happy Birthday” came to life in 1980 on his Hotter Than July album, three years before Martin Luther King Day was officially established.
It was an ode to the late peace activist and his impact on the Civil Rights Movement. Wonder continued to fight for Dr. King’s birthday to become a national holiday, performing at rallies in the early 1980s. In 1981, he performed at the National Mall in D.C., an event held on Dr. King’s birthday that attracted over 25,000 people, according to Grunge.
In 1983, after years of Wonder’s public rallying and other activists’ push, the House of Representatives passed the Martin Luther King birthday bill, and in Oct. 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed it into law.
The first Martin Luther King Day was celebrated on January 20, 1986, and Wonder performed at an “All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.,” playing his rendition of “Happy Birthday” in honor of Dr. King and his fight to carry on his historic legacy.
