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Though he’s one of the most gifted and important artists to have ever created popular music, Stevie’s legacy as a tireless and fearless advocate for justice may he even *more* powerful. We should heed every word he says. https://twitter.com/steviewonder/status/981684090264064000
I want to share a lesson for casual fans, or younger people who may not know Stevie’s legacy. After a bunch of hits as a teenage sensation, Stevie had a run of albums in the 70s that were the greatest back-to-back releases in pop music history. Commercial and artistic triumphs.
By the late 70s, Stevie had won so many Grammys they joked about it at the awards. His hits were so huge the Jackson 5 were his *backup singers* and you barely noticed them. He could have done anything next. Almost *anything* would have won adulation or praise.
Stevie Wonder instead chose to bet his career, at its peak, on getting a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King. He didn’t just talk about it: Stevie showed up. He wooed members of Congress, signing autographs for their kids at private parties. He showed up year after year.
The vote on the holiday failed to pass. The next year, it failed again. Stevie went from being adored at the Grammys to getting death threats. He held a concert on the National Mall, at great expense to himself. He wrote “Happy Birthday” in King’s honor & made it his next single.
Stevie organized across the country as he toured, gathering millions of signatures in support of the holiday. The fight took nearly a decade and a half, and reached its culmination just after Reagan had come into office & the political obstacles were strongest.
Finally, in November of 1983, the bill was officially signed, and Stevie Wonder and everyone in the movement emerged victorious. In 1986, the country slowly began observing the King holiday. Stevie had bet one of the biggest careers of all time on an unlikely cause. And he won.
And Stevie still exhorts us: don’t let them limit you to “just” an artist, or athlete, or entrepreneur, or doctor, or teacher. Be you *and* an activist. Stevie bet his life’s work that it would pay off, and persevered through years of setbacks. And he prevailed, for Dr. King.
