In this passage, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday holds significant personal and cultural importance for the author due to their family's traditions surrounding the holiday.

The author fondly recalls spending childhood years at home with no school or work on MLK Day. This break from routine was always filled with special activities centered around celebrating Dr. King's legacy, particularly through music. Every year without fail, Stevie Wonder's album 'Hotter Than July' would be played continuously on the record player.

A standout track in this annual playlist was 'Happy Birthday,' a cover of the classic song written by two American songwriters for President Harding's 50th birthday party and later copyrighted in the name of its most famous performer, but not widely known to be so until much later.

For years following their discovery of MLK Day as an offical national holiday when they started attending school full-time after moving away from home at age nine, it wasn't until I asked a group of fellow student-athletes who knew why this particular song was being played over and over again that the author finally understood its true meaning.

It turned out many others were also unaware that 'Happy Birthday' had originally been written as tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., not just another generic birthday wish like it often seemed at first glance.

This realization led me down a rabbit hole of research about race relations in America, identity politics and the complex history behind seemingly simple things we take for granted today.

Stevie wonder song happy birthday