Stevie Wonder has been hailed as “an inspiration” as city leaders agreed to award the music legend the Freedom of Newcastle.
Councillors voted on Wednesday evening to confer Newcastle’s highest civic honour on the American chart-topper. The 72-year-old, who played at the City Hall in the 1960s, was chosen in recognition of his campaign to establish Martin Luther King’s birthday as a national holiday in the USA.
Newcastle has long held great pride in its links with the civil rights leader, who visited Tyneside in November 1967 to receive an honorary degree from Newcastle University – the only British institution to honour him before his assassination, which came just five months later.
