With its heavy synths and energetic chorus, it’s easy for listeners to miss the significance of Wonder’s appeal.
Wonder chides naysayers in the song’s opening: “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.”įollowing in the fourth verse, he sings: “I just never understood/ How a man who died for good/ Could not have a day that would/ Be set aside for his recognition.” moved through the 70s and into the 80s, the gaps in poverty and social stratification between Americans had widened considerably.
The social turmoil of the 60s had given way to increased calls for “law and order” - a dog whistle that played on stereotypes of Black criminality and demanded increased policing and punitive measures in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods. Lee inside namesake school causes concern Push for MLK holiday intensifiesīy the time Wonder began to pen the lyrics to his infectious tune, things looked bleak. More: As Confederate statues tumble, a tribute to Robert E. The next year, it passed through the statehouse unanimously and so-called “Lee-King” Day was signed into law. George Wallace announced support of the latter bill. Lee’s, which was already observed on the third Monday of January. Holmes, who served from 1974 to 2018, would advance two alternative bills in April and October 1983: the first would combine the state’s three Confederate holidays and mark it in June on Jefferson Davis’ birthday the second would combine King’s birthday with Robert E. The president endorsed the bill, but not even a plea from the sanctuary of King’s former Atlanta church Ebenezer Baptist moved the congressional needle. When Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election, King supporters had hoped he would be swayed to act by his debt to the unions, which had played a major role in his victory. By the early 70s, the United Autoworkers and AFSCME, two of the country’s largest unions, had made the King holiday a regular demand in contract negotiations. When King was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, he was there to back striking sanitation workers who were pushing for higher wages among other work reforms.Īt a New York General Motors plant, a small group of auto workers refused to labor on King’s birthday one year after his death, and thousands of hospital workers launched a strike until managers agreed to make it a paid holiday. The leader had been a strong labor union supporter and set the demand for fair wages and “full employment” as a centerpiece of his activism. As early as 1969, Black and brown union workers had begun to agitate in favor of the King holiday.
0 kommentar(er)
