The year was 1966 and Lyndon B Johnson was president.
Race riots continued across the United States,
Muhammad Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam war,
and the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.
During Jim crow, Nasa relied on the mathematical equations of three black women to win the space race.
In 1966, however, a TV show called Star Trek appointed a black woman as one of the commanders of its own spacecraft...
the Starship Enterprise.
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols, was the first black character in a leading role to be depicted in outer space.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized the significance of the ship's diverse crew.
According to Nichols, it was King who convincer her to stay on after the first season,
telling her, "You are our image of where we're going. You are three hundred years from now."
He went on: "For the first time, we are seen as what we should be. You don't have a black role, you have an equal role."
Thirty years from Uhura's debut, a black woman would reach the true final frontier.
Astronaut Mae Jemison entered Earth's orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on Sepember the 12th, 1992.
Black people remain criminally under represented in Hollywood's biggest Sci-Fi films.
What kind of message is sent when future worlds are depicted without them?
Afrofuturism and characters like Uhura are important because they shed light on black people's ability
... even as Hollywood fails to catch on.
to create, carry, and elevate Sci-Fi roles...
