Nichelle Nichols Dead At 89

Nichols played Uhura for all three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series, and would go on to appear in six Star Trek films as well. While Nichols originally intended to leave Star Trek early on to pursue a career on Broadway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is credited with encouraging her to stay in the series, as she was a vital role model for Black children and young women all across the world. Nichols recalls King telling her that "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."

She was Dora Milage before Dora Milage was cool. She was always pure class and an example to admire. I never saw a black woman on that bridge of the Enterprise. I saw a bad ass bitch who would cut evil Sulu's throat for the simplest offence. That is a Goddess.