Wonder said it was an emotional night for him, saying “my mother cries in heaven for me.”
“She left me in a world where she believed I would be able to see. And I do,” he said. “But not in the way she imagined.
“What I have seen too much if is breaking my heart,” Wonder said, referring to the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last month. “I have seen hate marching down the streets disguised as a cry for equality.” And, he said, “If can see it, dammit, I know you can see it.
Wonder then dropped to one, then both knees, with the help of his son Kwame. “I take a knee for America and two knees in prayer for our world,” he said. “Amen.”
At a concert in honor of Charlottesville held at the University of Virginia Sunday, Pharell Williams followed Wonder’s example.
“If I want to get on my knees right now for the people in my city…for the people in my state — that’s what that flag is for,” Wiliams said.
