What a Career Path—From ‘Exploring Galaxies’ to Recruiting Others to Reach for the Stars

Career paths often take unusual turns, but Nichelle Nichols went from travelling through galaxies on TV to recruiting minority astronauts to actually travel in space!

While her career ranged from modeling to singing to appearing in plays and musicals, Nichols is best remembered for her breakthrough role as communications officer Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise on Star Trek.

Gene Roddenberry, producer of Star Trek, hired Nichols for a role on another TV show that dealt with racial prejudice, and thought that she would be perfect for a role on his new program that would feature a spaceship/workplace in the twenty-third century that included people of all races, nationalities, and genders in important and responsible jobs.

In an article about her on CNN.com, Nichols recalls that she was tempted to leave the show for a career on Broadway, but Dr. Martin Luther King personally persuaded her to stay because she was a role model who had “opened the door” for both Blacks and young women.

Nichols says on her website that after Star Trek ended, “When NASA asked me to help them find the first qualified women and minorities to join the then all-male/all-white astronaut corps, I did so with great enthusiasm,” tying it in with a company she had helped found called Women in Motion.

She traveled the country for NASA seeking women and minorities with the STEM credentials needed to join the space program. Her star recruits included Colonel Guion Bluford, the first African-American astronaut; Dr. Judith Resnick and Dr. Ronald McNair (who were both killed in the Challenger disaster); and the late Dr. Sally Ride.

In fact, Nichols reports on her website that “Sally was one of my first and biggest achievements. She once thanked me for my recruitment efforts while under contract to NASA, saying ‘If it hadn’t been for you I might not be here.’”