Groundbreaking Actress Returns to Her Hometown with Wizard World Chicago

Nichelle Nichols smiles when she thinks back to the beginning of her professional career as a teenager in Chicago.  She was recruited by Duke Ellington to dance and choreograph for his upcoming national tour.  By the time the tour ended, Nichols was Duke’s lead singer.  “It was unbelievable,” says Nichols.  “It was like a dream come true and that’s the type of opportunities Chicago offers young folks in the arts.”   Nichols is excited to return to her hometown as part of 2018 Wizard World Chicago.  “It feels fantastic.  I still have a lot of family in Chicago.  It’s great to come home with people I love.”

Nichelle Nichols

A talented singer/dancer/actress, Nichols is probably best known for her groundbreaking role as Communications Officer (later Commander) Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek television series (1966-69) as well as the succeeding motion pictures.  As a bridge officer, she became the first African American female character on American television not portrayed as a servant.  In her role as Lieutenant Uhura, Nichols kissed white actor William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in the November 22, 1968 Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”. The Shatner/Nichols kiss was seen as groundbreaking with the episode being cited as the first interracial kiss on U.S. television.

During the first year of Star Trek, Nicholas was tempted to leave the series to pursue her Broadway career.  She told series creator and close friend Gene Roddenberry she planned to leave the show.  The next day Nichols attended a fundraiser for NAACP and was told there was a big fan who wanted to meet her.  “I thought it was Trekkie so I said ‘Sure.’  I looked across the room, and there was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. walking towards me with a huge grin on his face.”  He said he was her greatest fan.  Star Trek was the only show he and his wife Coretta would let their three children stay up and watch.  When Nichols told King about her plans to leave the show, he said “You can’t.  You are part of history” He encouraged her to not give it up because she was playing a vital role model for black children and young women across the country, as well as for other children who would see blacks appearing as equals.  When Nichols told Roddenberry what King had said, he cried.

Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison has cited Nichols role as Lieutenant Uhura as her inspiration to become an astronaut. 

Cast as a Bridge Officer in Star Trek Nichols Broke Racial Barriers in U.S. Television

After the cancellation of Star Trek, Nichols volunteered her time to work with NASA on a special project to recruit minority and female candidates for the space agency.  “I gave a speech before the National Space Institute in Washington, D.C., entitled ‘New Opportunities for the Humanization of Space.’ I’d heard the same question time and time again in my travels from members of the black community “Space?  So what’s in it for me?” That was my talk, and I wanted NASA to hear it.”

Through her travels, potential female and minority candidates told Nichols they didn’t even bother to apply to the space agency because they didn’t think they’d be accepted, even if they had what it took. Before partnering with Nichols, NASA had failed to ever recruit a single female astronaut or person of color.

“Well, they heard me,” Nichols explains. “NASA invited me to consult on how we could address those concerns to get people into the program.  I told them that, if they gave me the resources, I would go out and find candidates that would knock their socks off.”

Nichols had a condition though.  When she did find people who met every single one of their criteria, who met or exceeded every standard, they would accept them. “And I knew I WOULD find them. I wasn’t going to be used to make them look like they were just making an effort if they weren’t serious about taking in these diverse recruits.”

The partnership was a success.  Among the recruits Nichols championed were Dr. Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut; USAF Colonel Guion Bluford, the first African American astronaut; and Charles Bolden, the former NASA Administrator and veteran of four shuttle missions.

When asked about her legacy, Nichols says she hears it from fans at every show. “I have heard so many people come to me and say that Star Trek, or my character, inspired them at an early age to pursue science, engineering, or math, and now they’re working in amazing, inspiring fields. That is the same legacy I think I will have with NASA, helping people find their own passion, to believe in themselves as equal and as capable as anyone else, and to really get out there and do something amazing.”