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(On MLK’s birthday, an affectionate exploration of Pete Souza’s photograph of Stevie Wonder in the Oval Office, and more.)
Last weekend, I remembered Stevie Wonder’s pivotal role in creating a federal holiday to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.
It wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when seeing this photograph (by stalwart White House photographer Pete Souza) of Mr. Wonder holding a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Oval Office. I was distracted by the immediacy of the photo’s odd and surprising details; Lincoln’s gauzy gaze, the inscription on the rug, the pendant in Wonder’s hair.
It took a few days of returning to the photo (while sitting on a park bench at my daughter’s favorite playground, in this, the 5th Congressional district of Georgia) to remember Wonder’s role in creating the holiday, and then came the realization, a first for me in this soon-to-be-post-Obama pre-Trump maelstrom: America used to be really great.
Remember when we rose above our repressive past, against the odds (and the old, bitter & southern objections of men like Jesse Helms) to Do The Right Thing?
Stevland Hardaway Morris (that’s him, in Souza’s photo) helped create a movement…
