Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89 (7/31/2022)

miss nichols uh there's uh someone who really wants to meet you um he's a big fan and i said oh certainly and i got up and turned around into the face of dr martin luther king i could not breathe i mean you know that expression waiting to exhale i and and he's and he smiled and when he laughed i think that's when i kind of began to exhale and he said uh i'm the fan and my whole family as a fan of yours and my little children and then he says and i want to congratulate you on the quality of your work and and the quality of the character and uh and so forth and i said well thank you dr king i'm going to miss my uh co-workers and and and he said what you're talking about and i said i'm leaving the show uh after the first season and i told gene roddenberry he says you can't do that you cannot disease you cannot do that and i i wanted to say what you talk about and and he said don't you understand what that man is doing he's chained you he's put you and the command crew you're fourth in command you can't abdicate this when you're you're out there on a five-year mission where no man or woman has gone before he said he says you have changed the face of television forever you cannot do that for the first time the whole world is seeing us as we should be seen not just as beautiful entertainers and and domestics or domestics he said for the first time there's a whole human being there beyond the beauty beyond the talent the musical talent in science and and it's not a mistake he made you chief communications officer and i thought right then i'd used it since yeah i get to tell everybody where to go

Channel: reelblack

Views: 12,073

Keywords: Martin Luther King, Star Trek, Interview

Id: lUv-bIgWxxI

Length: 2min 30sec (150 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2022