This Martin Luther King Day holds a special resonance for me for a number of reasons. First, it will be the first that I celebrate as a new initiate of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, the fraternity that Dr. King joined while attaining his doctorate degree from Boston University. Both of these achievements have personal resonance for me as I also graduated from Boston University School of Law as a Public Interest Scholar and as a Martin Luther King Social Justice fellow. My entire life, I have seen Dr. King’s name as there is typically a MLK Jr. Drive running through every Black neighborhood. The ubiquity of his name and the sanitized manner in which he is spoken about now, neither reflects the hatred directed towards him during the course of his life, nor does it match the vitriol directed at him towards his death. Growing up, we would often attend the Martin Luther King Jr. parade, never fully understanding the work it took for the national holiday named after him to come to fruition. Of course we knew that we got the day off, and yes, every school I attended discussed him, but I don’t recall any deep dive on the 15–year campaign it took for the holiday honoring him to come to be. According to the Smithsonian, “the legislation to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first introduced just four days after his assassination on April 4, 1968. Still, it would take 15 years of persistence by civil rights activists for the holiday to be approved by the federal government and an additional 17 years for it to be recognized in all 50 states.” I was so ignorant of this history that it wasn’t until I was watching the recent Dave Chappelle comedy special, that I learned that the Stevie Wonder “Happy Birthday song” that is so much of a staple of Black joy and celebration, is an anthem specifically dedicated to honoring Dr. King and his legacy.
I have thought a lot recently about how close and yet how disconnected we can be from our history, how the truths of our country and its true legacy can be right in front of us but still not clear enough for us to see. I have wondered how many times a day, in how many places is the birthday song sung by folks like me who have no idea of its significance. How much more powerful would it have been, all of those times we previously, loudly and joyously belted out that song, if we knew that the happiness we were experiencing in that moment was directly connected to the legacy of struggle and achievement. Like a great many truths of our country, this one was just beneath the surface, I don’t know that I have ever sung anything other than the chorus and despite my listening to the song dozens of times, I have never quite heard it until now. In that way, the song is the perfect metaphor for the recent racial reckoning that wasn’t, Black folks and our voices were never quite heard, then there were mass protests and for a second we thought the masses were ready to hear us. People heard the chorus and chants of Black Lives Matter and reacted with mass marketing and promises they would never keep. It became clear that many of those self-proclaimed allies never absorbed the substance or understood the depth of what they were witnessing; the pain behind the joy. They mistook a movement for a moment, ignoring the trauma behind the triumph and the history behind the hope.
Let us declare that from now on, we won’t celebrate Dr. King without actually seeing him, without understanding that this is more than just a day off, this is a day that took over a decade of sustained effort and struggle to be. That his loved ones had to fight through their own grief so that my loved ones and I could sing “Happy Birthday,” yearly, totally oblivious to that sacrifice. Never again…
I just never understood
How a man who died for good
Could not have a day that would
Be set aside for his recognition
Because it should never be
Just because some cannot see
The dream as clear as he
That they should make it become an illusion
And we all know everything
That he stood for time will bring
For in peace, our hearts will sing
Thanks to Martin Luther King
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Stevie Wonder, “Happy Birthday,” Hotter Than July (1980)
