Urging her to stay, Dr. King inspired ‘what should be seen’

It’s an unlikely story about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – unlikely only because it has to do with his interactions with mainstream media personalities. Nevertheless, it includes a wink and a nudge of his brio.


NPR:

The nation honors the memory of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday. And among NPR’s offerings that day will be a fascinating story from actress Nichelle Nichols — known to fans around the world as “Lt. Uhura” on the original Star Trek TV series and six of the later big-screen movies based on that vision of the future.

… [A]t an NAACP dinner in Los Angeles, Nichols says, King told her he was her biggest fan. When Nichols (who has shared this story before, including in her autobiography) told King she was planning to leave the show, he told her she couldn’t do that.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Nichols says King told her, was showing the nation a universe where ” ‘for the first time, we [African-Americans] are being seen the world over … as we should be seen’.” And ” ‘you have created a character’ ” that is critical to that, he said.

….

“I was … speechless,” Nichols says.

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