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When season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered on June 15, 2023, fans noticed that the episode paid tribute to Nichelle Nichols. While most millennial and Gen Z fans may not remember the name, original Star Trek fans know Nichelle Nichols as a legend in the sci-fi genre.
She played the iconic character Nyota Uhura on the original show. Nyota Uhura's specialties on the show were linguistics, cryptography, and philology, and was a very important member of the Star Trek team.
Nichols rose to fame because she was one of the first actors of African origin to not be portrayed in a degrading role on American TV. Back then racism was way more prevalent than in the 21st century and something like this was a huge step into the future.
Nichelle Nichols life and fimography
Born on December 28, 1932, in Robbins, Illinois, Nichelle Nichols had five other siblings. Her parents were Samuel Earl Nichols and Lishia. Nichelle Nichols married twice, once to Foster Johnson and again to Duke Mondy. Both relationships ended in divorce.
Her birth name was Grace Dell Nichols but she despised it growing up. Frustrated, she requested her parents to change it. Grace Dell Nichols soon became Nichelle Nichols. She attended Englewood High School and then learned ballet at the Chicago Ballet Academy.
Her beginnings in showbiz were humble as was often just cast as a background dancer in films. She gradually moved to acting and modeling and started making a name for herself. She made it to the cover of Ebony magazine in January 1967. Nichelle then appeared in shows, plays, and films like The Roar of the Greasepaint, Blues for Mister Charlie, The Lieutenant, and To Set It Right.
In the late 60s, she was cast as Nyota Uhura on Star Trek and the rest of history. The USA was going through major political unrest at the time, and there was increasing animosity between white and black people. There was an instance where she wanted to leave the show but after a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr., she changed her mind.
She fondly recalled the meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. in an older interview. Nichelle believed that a fan of the show wanted to meet her but was left dumbfounded when the fan was the black politician himself.
She said that she thought it was a "Trekkie" who wanted to meet her and agreed to meet them. However, when she looked across the room, she said that the fan would have had to wait because she saw the politician walking towards her with a "big grin on his face." She recalled that he reached out to her and told her that he was her "greatest fan."
Nichols added that Martin Luther King Jr. told her that Star Trek was the only show that he and his wife, Coretta, would let their three kids stay up and watch. She noted:
"I never got to tell him why, because he said, 'you cannot, you cannot...for the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful, people who can sing dance, and can go to space, who are professors, lawyers'."
From 1977 to 2015, the actress spent hours volunteering for NASA's programs in order to motivate young colored females and ethnic minority astronauts.
Nichols passed away on July 22, 2022, at the age of 89. However, original fans of the franchise got to see a tribute to her when the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered.
