Nichelle Nicols

Paw Print Writer: Riley Benavidez

In spirit of Women’s history month, this article is dedicated to the life of Nichelle Nicols. We miss and aspire for your courage and wisdom.

Nichelle Nicoles is most famously known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura aboard the Star Trek’s USS Enterprise during the early 1960’s, to volunteering over at NASA to produce a program to recruit minorities and women into the NASA programs. She played a crucial role in advocating for women’s rights by being a role model during an era that severely lacked diversity.

Nicols’ story starts in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in 1932, born to a big family of 5 other siblings and to a two-parent household. Her father Samuel Nichols was a factory worker and her mother, Lishia Nichols, a homemaker. Early in life she changed her name originally from Grace Nichols to Nichelle-for the meaning “victorious maiden”. At age 12 she studied dance at Chicago Ballet Academy, jumpstarting her passion for her later career.

Her professional career began as a singer and dancer around the Chicago area and toured the United States and Canada with various bands such as Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. During 1961 Nichol’s acting break came through the play Kicks and Company by Oscar Brown. Landing her higher but odd jobs such as Playboy magazine. This again landed another job attracting the attention of other magazines such as Ebony. During this time she continued touring, singing in Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton’s bands.

As Nichol’s popularity grew, so did her acting skills; then she landed acting roles, starting from Broadway musicals. However, she set her eyes on bigger things and to go boldly into uncharted territories. Quitting her roles in broadway she landed a role in Star Trek during 1961. This was unheard of for science fiction television to star a woman of color next to the other strong male roles of the show. This caused monumental backlash and encouragement. It even got the attention of black activist Martin Luther King Jr. who wrote letters to Nichelle Nichols about her importance of a black woman being on television even though Nichols was having second thoughts and was thinking about returning to Broadway.

“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, dance, and can go to space, who are professors, lawyers." Dr. King Jr went further, "If you leave, that door can be closed because your role is not a black role, and is not a female role; he can fill it with anybody, even an alien." This eventually convinced Nichols to stay, even during the extreme controversies, and threats she’s been facing while acting on Star Trek.

However, things must go to an end, Star Trek was canceled, leaving the science fiction world she turned to a more daunting task. Nichols went on and volunteered her time at NASA, creating a special program that helped enlist women and minorities into science fields. Thankfully, the program blasted off, and among the recruits were Dr. Sally Ride who became the first American female astronaut and Dr. Judith Resnik, the black astronaut, and countless others. This program continues to this day with tremendous success to help diversify science and space exploration.

There are more stories to discover about Nichelle Nichols, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Please consider reading more about her. Live long and prosper.