{"id":3865,"date":"2021-01-18T14:46:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T20:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2021-01-18T15:04:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T21:04:20","slug":"mlk-day-how-stevie-wonders-happy-birthday-song-pushed-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/mlk-day-how-stevie-wonders-happy-birthday-song-pushed-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"MLK DAY: How Stevie Wonder&#8217;s Happy Birthday Song Pushed Legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MLK DAY. How Stevie Wonder&#8217;s Happy Birthday song helped push the legislation in 1983 resulting in MLK Day being celebrated as the first federal holiday in 1986.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/0GLkKeiOfmcjYtCv2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3867\" src=\"http:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/0GLkKeiOfmcjYtCv2-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/0GLkKeiOfmcjYtCv2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/0GLkKeiOfmcjYtCv2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/0GLkKeiOfmcjYtCv2.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stevie Wonder&#8217;s song became the national anthem of the movement to make Martin Luther King Jr.&#8217;s birthday a national holiday. It has been sung countless times over the past 40 years since it was released in 1981. His most important performance was a rally he lead in Washington, DC on January 15, 1981 where he performed the Happy Birthday song as a tribute to Dr. King. During his performance he stated:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe ought to have a way to honor this human being and reaffirm the ideals he lived and died for .\u2009.\u2009. Designating his birthday a national holiday would create an event for all Americans, for Dr. King was a champion for justice and liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The song quickly became a political statement, more than\u00a025,000 people marched from the Capitol to the Washington Monument in the quest for MLK Day.\u00a0In 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill making the third Monday in January a federal holiday effective 1986.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"688\" height=\"516\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RcVZfJO01NI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>(Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group \u2117 1980 Motown Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MLK DAY. How Stevie Wonder&#8217;s Happy Birthday song helped push the legislation in 1983 resulting in MLK Day being celebrated&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,115],"tags":[1629],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3871,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions\/3871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}