I am sick that truth is struggling to be heard and defended. I am sick of lies and deceit that dominate our reality.
I am sick of some people using God for a convenience rather than a commitment. I am sick that politicians try to find an easy solution to a four-hundred-year problem. For 36 years, we’ve had a holiday honoring your birthday and principles, yet you would not believe the lack of progress. It is painful to know that needle has not moved one iota. More than any award that I’ve ever received, I want you to know that I’m thankful how you influenced my place of love, which allowed me to try to push the needle of love and equality forward. I’ve been blessed to write songs of love, hope, and motivation-many of them inspired by your life. You were a true hero and became an inspiration. As Stevie Wonder remembered in his letter to MLK, King in which he contemplated how far things had come, and how far we still had to go to make his dream a reality. In 2021, he published an open letter to the late Dr. Wonder, now in his ’70s, continues to use his influence to move the fight for truth and equality forward. The fact that MLK Day exists points the ship in the right direction, but anyone who’s been paying attention knows that there is still an untold amount of work to be done in order to reach King’s storied dream for our country. on the third Monday of January, every January, and several generations of Americans have grown up learning his message. Both an unfiltered rebuke of MLK Day opponents and a contagious celebratory anthem, the song quickly became a sort of rallying cry for the campaign.Īs the song grew in popularity, so did the MLK Day movement. The song was later released as a single in the U.K. In 1980, Wonder, already a veteran creator of social justice-minded music, gave the campaign a boost with “Happy Birthday”.
Despite widespread efforts, however, the holiday wasn’t signed into law until 1983, and wasn’t officially observed for the first time until 1986. The famed civil rights activist had been assassinated in 1968, and the campaign to mark his birthday, January 15th, with a national holiday began not long after. The track was born of more than a decade of frustration. in “Happy Birthday”, the final track on 1980’s Hotter Than July. “You know it doesn’t make much sense, there ought to be a law against anyone who takes offense at a day in your celebration,” Stevie Wonder wonders to the late Dr.
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