" Star Trek " has one of the most passionate fan radix of any entertainment franchise in American history . Throughout its many decades of creation , fans have wish they could avail dictate the guidance of the show to meet their whims . Well , apparently it takes an influential person to make that happen . LikeMartin Luther King Jrinfluential .
Nichelle Nichols , an African American womanhood , played communication officer Lieutenant Uhura on the TV show in the 1960s . Her theatrical role had immense cultural significance because it was the first role portraying a inglorious woman as something other than a well-worn stereotype . Uhura , whose name wasbased on the Swahili word for exemption , Uhuru , was an of import graphic symbol on the starship Enterprise . Show creator Gene Roddenberry was determined to create a multiracial cast , something rare at that time in American television .
At first , Nichols ' portrayal of Lt . Uhura was almost curtly - lived . Her setting was in field of operations as she had performed in a Broadway satire about Hugh Hefner and Playboy titled " Kicks & Co. " that helped launch her career . After the first time of year of " Star Trek , " she was approached with the opportunity to return to the stage and decided to take it . But fate had other program .
Roddenberry was upset to see her go and asked her to take the weekend to mull over her decision . During that metre , she went to an NAACP fundraiser in Beverly Hills when she was set about by the most unbelievable Trekkie : Martin Luther King Jr. Here ’s how sherecalled the meeting in 2011to NPR :
King informed her that " Star Trek " was the only show he give up his kids to delay up and watch and that not only was he a fan , he was deeply moved by what Nichols exemplify . America was in one of its most divisive era ever , and King found it to be of furthest importance that Nichols preserve to lay out a confident example of an African American cleaning lady in a position of leadership on goggle box .
Nichols detailed her feelings after the conversation for aReddit AMA in 2015 :
Nichols ' continued presence on the show cemented Lt . Uhura as a ethnic ikon in science fiction and American pop culture . If not for King ’s insistence and Nichols ' interchange her mind , we may never have gotten one of the most important scenes in tv set history .
In " Star Trek ’s " third and last season , NBC aired the episode " Plato ’s Stepchildren " Nov. 22 , 1968 , seven month afterKing was assassinated . The sequence was groundbreaking because it feature the first mixed kiss ( between William Shatner ’s Capt . Kirk and Nichols ' Lt . Uhura ) ever seen on U.S. television .
The fabled second continued to carry out Dr. King ’s pipe dream for Nichols and her role . King cognize back in the show ’s first season that Nichols had the ability to continue to break roadblock and redefine beliefs about Black women in America . Her candy kiss with Shatner was further validation of King ’s Bob Hope that she could show America that hoi polloi can love one another despite any racial differences .
