Thank you for the Memories
This past weekend we learned of the passing of an American Icon, Nichelle Nichols or better known to us as Lieutenant Uhura from the still popular science fiction TV series Star Trek. The show first aired in 1966 and lasted just three years, airing its final episode in 1969. Stay with me here…
I was 3 years old when it first aired and I was 6 years old when it was cancelled yet, (stop doing the math and just continue reading) somehow, thanks to Ted Turner and the Turner Broadcasting Network, it managed to catch its stride in the “re-runs” of the 80’s. The re-runs is where I first discovered Star Trek and of course Lt. Uhura.
This woman did more for race relations than she will ever get credit for. She was a modest 5”5 with immeasurable talent and a graceful beauty that could stop a moving train in its heavy iron tracks. ANY TIME she appeared on the screen, I paid attention and so did a bazillion other dudes of all races. Ok, stop it, I was a teenager with raging hormones and those futuristic military uniforms that Lt. Uhura was required to wear firmly showed the shape that God had given her and it was impossible not to notice, regardless of your skin color.
Lt. Uhura, to me, was the brains of the show. Yes, I know that pointy eared Mr. Spock could do math in his head as fast as any computer and Captain Kirk forgot more about death defying escapes than MacGyver will ever know, but when Captain Kirk needed to speak to a villain or galaxy leader, you had to go through Lt. Uhura and vice versa. Nobody could do a thing unless Lt. Uhura managed to put them up on the screen. She was excellent at it, not to mention that every time she had to do some fancy maneuvers to get the communications lines open, the camera showed her at her station, legs and all. Ok, sue me. She was an amazingly beautiful woman and I was a teenager, did I cover that part yet?
Anyway, Ms. Nichols was born December 28th 1932 in Robbins Illinois. I was surprised to hear that she passed away in Silver City New Mexico at the age of 89! It was tough for me to grasp, not because she passed away in one of my favorite New Mexico towns, but tough for me to grasp that she was 89. As far as I am concerned, she never aged. She is still controlling the communications deck on the star ship Enterprise. She is forever etched in my brain as the exceptionally beautiful Lt. Uhura.
She once told the story of a meeting she requested of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the show, where she gave him her resignation letter because she loved the broadway stage better than the big screen and fully intended to pursue her dreams. Of course, Roddenberry begged her to stay and told her to “take the weekend and think about it”. That evening she was at an event when her manager told her that a fan wanted to meet her, in her own words she said “I thought it was a “trekky”, so I said yes” but when she looked up, she saw Dr. Martin Luther King coming towards her. It turns out that Dr. King was the “fan”.
In that encounter with one of the greatest movers and shakers of race relations and equality ever born, she told him of her intentions to leave the show and thank goodness, he talked her out of it. She recounted the conversation in this way; Dr. King 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 and dance, and can go into space, who are professors and lawyers. If you leave…that door can be closed because your role is not a black role, and it is not a female role; he can fill it with anybody, even an alien.”
So, thank you Dr. King for changing her mind!
In all sincerity, beauty really isn’t skin deep and Nichelle Nichols helped illustrate that better than anyone could ever have done. She lit up the screen then, as she still does today. Lt. Uhura caught my eye as a teenager. I had thing for her then, and I still do.
In one episode, she shared an on screen kiss with Captain James Tiberius Kirk. This on screen kiss was earth shattering stuff for a show shot in the mid 60’s. Surprisingly, the fan mail she received after “the kiss felt round the world” was nearly all positive with very little opposed. One letter that she openly shared in her autobiography came from a white southern man that better encapsulates the infamous on-screen kiss that she shared with Captain Kirk than anyone ever could. A kiss that has been cited as the first interracial kiss on U.S. television and without a doubt…I hated Captain Kirk for grabbing that groundbreaking honor… Any way, here is the letter she shared that easily illustrated how her talent and beauty allowed her to transcend race;
“I am totally opposed to the mixing of races. However, any time a red blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he aint gonna fight it.”
RIP Nichelle Nichols, thank you for the memories that have stuck with me for a lifetime. You may have departed from this earth but your beauty and spirit will remain forever. Live long and prosper.