King and MLK day, but what better way to celebrate than with a lesson on the very song that helped MLK day become a national holiday! I know there are a lot of songs and music lessons that have been created to celebrate Dr. Also, remember that the national MLK holiday falls on the 3 rd Monday of January, not necessarily Dr. The holiday was officially celebrated for the first time nationally on January 20 th, 1986 (it’s also important to note that some states and cities began honoring Dr. The movement to officially enact MLK day finally succeeded in 1983, when the bill passed the Senate 78 to 22. In the later years leading up to the bill’s adoption, Wonder committed to significant rallying for the holiday including a four-month tour to publicize the drive for MLK day concluding in a rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. King’s writings and be informed on the totality of his work and views. King omits much of his stances on issues including his longstanding critique of police brutality. Now lauded as one of our most significant civil rights leaders, mainstream information about Dr. government and labeled a communist because of the work he did to fight for civil rights. While our history textbooks would tell us otherwise, it’s important to remember that while he was alive, Dr. King had followed a philosophy of “action-oriented Marxism” that was not “compatible with the concepts of this country (Roberts, 1983).” There was significant opposition to the bill, in particular from Sen. Wonder wrote and later recorded “Happy Birthday” and it was included on his 1980 album, Hotter Than July. King’s birthday and support the campaign for declaring his birthday a national holiday. Eventually, Wonder wrote “Happy Birthday” to commemorate Dr. Conyers in support of a bill to declare a national holiday in King’s honor. King when he was 15 and quickly joined Rep. It would take 15 years for this legislation to be passed. John Conyers introduced legislation to enact a national holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, Rep. Here’s Stevie Wonder performing the song, if you’ve never heard the song (or even if you have!) take a listen!įour days after Rev. as part of the campaign to enact a national holiday celebrating Dr. “Happy Birthday” is a song Stevie Wonder wrote in the pop/R&B genre and features him on the keyboard synthesizer. Martin Luther King, Jr day, this month’s song is Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.” For as long as I can remember, I have always known the “Black Happy Birthday Song,” but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned how that song came to be. The lesson plans I’ll be sharing will include a variety of learning pathways that you can take back to your classroom. Don’t take my – or anyone else’s – word for it! You need to do that work. Of course, you have to do your own due diligence, too: hold yourself to the standard that you will thoroughly know the musical content that you present to learners beyond just a surface level understanding. To support you, every month, I’ll be sharing a “Song of the Month,” a piece of musical content that I have researched along with a lesson plan. It’s also true that our learners deserve better content right now it’s up to us to make that happen, we can’t wait for others to do this for us. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have more music education curriculum resources that prioritize these things. We all know the importance of thoroughly knowing the background, history, and context of the songs and musicians we teach AND music educators absolutely need more resources that prioritize diversity, cite their sources, and give proper context to repertoire. This week I’m excited to share some of that work with you! Introducing Song of the Month I am an artist and creative at heart designing lessons & learning experiences for me is a part of my artistic craft as an educator. Hey music educators! Those of you who know me already know how much I love creating curriculum materials.
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