RIP Nichelle Nichols
Aug. 3rd, 2022 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerActress Nichelle Nichols passed away this past Saturday, July 30. She was aged 89. She was best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura in the Star Trek TV series (1966-1969) and several feature films.
In her role as Uhura, Nicols, a black woman, was a trailblazer. Star Trek featured one of the first multi-racial casts on TV. Her kiss with star William Shatner in a 1968 episode is thought to be the first interracial kiss on US television.
No less a luminary than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weighed in on the significance of Nichols portrayal of Uhura. In a story she's told many times, she met King— surprisingly, a Trek fan— and confided in him that she was thinking of leaving the show for a role on Broadway, or even to join him in his marches. King told her to stick with the role of Uhura as she was fighting the same fight as him by playing that character on the screen.
In her role as Uhura, Nicols, a black woman, was a trailblazer. Star Trek featured one of the first multi-racial casts on TV. Her kiss with star William Shatner in a 1968 episode is thought to be the first interracial kiss on US television.
No less a luminary than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weighed in on the significance of Nichols portrayal of Uhura. In a story she's told many times, she met King— surprisingly, a Trek fan— and confided in him that she was thinking of leaving the show for a role on Broadway, or even to join him in his marches. King told her to stick with the role of Uhura as she was fighting the same fight as him by playing that character on the screen.
