On 15 January 1981, Stevie Wonder joined Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and Gil Scott-Heron on stage at the National Mall in Washington, DC, to perform his song 'Happy Birthday'. The 50,000-strong crowd chanted 'Martin Luther King Day, we took a holiday' as the stars sang the tribute to the murdered civil rights leader.
The 1980 song marked the start of Wonder's campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr's birthday a federal holiday. For three years, he dedicated tours, rallies and marches to the cause, eventually seeing success in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law, establishing the first US holiday honouring a black American.
After Dr King's assassination in 1968, Representative John Conyers Jr introduced a bill for the holiday, but it languished for 13 years due to opposition from southern Democrats and conservative Republicans. Wonder had long advocated for the holiday, and in 1979 he shared a dream about it with Coretta Scott King, who was excited but doubted it could happen amid the rise of Reaganism.
Wonder wrote 'Happy Birthday' for his 1980 album 'Hotter than July', which peaked at number three in the US and number two in the UK. He used his 1981 tour as a worldwide drive for the holiday. Music critic Nelson George noted Wonder's ability to write cheerful songs about social injustice, comparing 'Happy Birthday' to 'Isn't She Lovely' and calling it a standard birthday song with political significance.
Kevin Gaines, professor of civil rights at the University of Virginia, placed Wonder in the tradition of US musicians who joined social movements, alongside Woody Guthrie, Marian Anderson and Billie Holiday. Wonder's career tracked the civil rights movement from his first number one hit in 1963.
