09/02/2024
arguably had the most diverse recurring cast of any network US TV show of its time. Black people in particular were routinely portrayed as part of the social fabric of the future and always in non-stereotypical roles.
Of Black actors appearing on the show, most prominent was Lt. Uhura, played by the late Nichelle Nichols. Tho underutilized, her constant presence as part of this fictional future sent a message to audiences. Representation matters.
But Uhura was part of what we might call US TV's first wave of diversity, where Black people began appearing as regulars on a number of shows — including Mission: Impossible, filmed next door to Trek — instead of just as a few notable outliers, like Cicely Tyson's groundbreaking role in East Side/West Side a few years earlier.
We have a lot more to say about Uhura, Nichols, and how this first small but significant wave of Black casting on US TV came to pass in our article "Uhura, Black to the Future." Have a read.
When Lt. Uhura appeared on the debut episode of Star Trek in September 1966, she was boldly going where no black woman had gone before: as a continuing character on an American network TV series depicting a future where the color of her skin didn’t matter, only the content of her character. The c
