Steel City Con features women who reach for the stars; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/6/15

Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Steel City Con features women who reach for the stars:

"Nichelle Nichols would have left her iconic role as Lt. Uhura after “Star Trek’s” inaugural 1966 season had it not been for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The story goes that the first African-American woman portraying a ship’s officer on a TV series — sci-fi or otherwise — found herself flooded with offers to appear in theater productions. The singer who worked with Duke Ellington decided to follow her musical roots and told “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry she was leaving the show.

Then she met the Rev. King at an NAACP fundraiser, and he told her he was a Trekkie and “your greatest fan,” Ms. Nichols recounted in the documentary “Trekkie Nation.”

When she told the civil rights leader that she was leaving the show, he said, “You cannot do that. … For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen.”...

Ms. Nichols’ role as the chief communications officer of the starship Enterprise also has inspired generations of women of color, including Ms. Ashley."