We must never forget, without him and his conviction, his dream, his tireless work, where would we be?Īlthough Martin Luther King Jr. My friends and I are the first generation of African Americans to never have known legal segregation in America. The moment was not lost on me that we have a song to sing in a restaurant full of all types of people because of King’s sacrifices. One of my friends shouted, “Wait! We are going to sing OUR song!” She began to belt out the chorus line of Stevie Wonder’s song, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” We all joined in clapping, rocking, and rejoicing in celebration of our friend as others looked on. When they brought out the customary dessert, the waiter began to sing the traditional birthday song. Recently, I was out with close friends celebrating a birthday at a restaurant. With gratitude, I celebrated MLK’s birth, jumping, dancing, and singing in my bedroom on that hot day in June. “Yes,” I thought, “he is worthy to be celebrated,” as I sat comfortably in my middle-class home, safe and secure knowing my worth and value to the society and culture my people built, despite all they endured. Is love and unity to all God's children 5 4 I sang out with pride, “Happy Birthday to ya!” As the music played on, I listened intently as Wonder preached: I knew that he started his nonviolent end to segregation campaign in my birthplace of Albany, Georgia, leading up to the successful Birmingham Campaign. I read each word on the album jacket and began singing along with it, becoming more and more excited about all that I knew about Martin Luther King Jr. It was such a simple song delivered in a way that only Stevie Wonder could.
That they should make it become an illusion
1 I loved every song on that album, but none stood out like Happy Birthday, 2 a song Wonder penned in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., celebrating and campaigning to make King's birthday, January 15, a national holiday.Ĭarefully laying the needle down on the spinning record, I listened as Wonder taught about the opposition to honor King. For my 11th birthday in 1981, my Godparents gave me my first album.
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