”Wonder recorded this to lobby for Dr. Martin Luther King’s January 15 birthday to be an American national holiday. The third Monday in January is now Martin Luther King day in USA – a public holiday.
Stevie Wonder had a huge role in getting Martin Luther King day recognized as a national holiday in America. In 1986, Wonder told Rolling Stone: “I had a vision of the Martin Luther King birthday as a national holiday. I mean I saw that. I imagined it. I wrote about it because I imagined it and I saw it and I believed it. So I just kept that in my mind till it happened.”
On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill. The holiday was first observed in 1986, but it took many more years before every state made it a full holiday complete with a paid day off for state workers. South Carolina was the last to do so, joining the other 49 states in 2000.”
text: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/stevie-wonder/happy-birthday
audio: https://youtu.be/_7iU1Sk2FDY
pictures: google
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