I'm adapting this from a Reddit comment I made. Since I spent all the time chasing down the links for that, I thought it should be copied to somewhere that it's a little more relevant than r/television. I want to make it clear right from the start that I'm not accusing Nichelle Nichols of active dishonesty or malicious deception. I'm a big fan of Stan Lee, and he's made some inconsistent claims too. It happens when you're a celebrity and you tell the same story a bunch of times. It's like you're playing a game of telephone with yourself. But in the interest of historical accuracy, I think we should be realistic about the fact that we don't really know exactly what happened...
The story of MLK convincing Nichelle Nichols to not quit Star Trek is often told, but I feel the need to point out that this tale has some indications of a "fish story" that grew larger in the telling. For instance, in this interview, Nichols describes meeting MLK and immediately having that conversation about how she was thinking about quitting and he tells her not to. In other accounts (such as this one), her in-person meeting with MLK was just a passing greeting, as often happens with one celebrity meeting another, and then it was a later phone call where he urged her not to quit. In fact, there was even a Reddit AMA where Nichols specifically says that the phone call was "quite some time after I first met him," contrary to the immediacy that there seemed to be in that first version of the story (that also came straight from her). There's also a less common version where she just received a letter from MLK (this one seems the least likely to me, not just because of how rarely that version comes up, but also because if such a letter existed, I think we would've seen it by now).
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying none of this happened. It's probable that there's some kernel of truth to the story, but we need to be realistic about the fact that we don't know exactly what it is, given the conflicting accounts. In that AMA comment, Nichols even acknowledges herself that "I had several conversations with him over the years, and it sounds like the stories have gotten mixed and confused."
The story of MLK convincing Nichelle Nichols to not quit Star Trek is often told, but I feel the need to point out that this tale has some indications of a "fish story" that grew larger in the telling. For instance, in this interview, Nichols describes meeting MLK and immediately having that conversation about how she was thinking about quitting and he tells her not to. In other accounts (such as this one), her in-person meeting with MLK was just a passing greeting, as often happens with one celebrity meeting another, and then it was a later phone call where he urged her not to quit. In fact, there was even a Reddit AMA where Nichols specifically says that the phone call was "quite some time after I first met him," contrary to the immediacy that there seemed to be in that first version of the story (that also came straight from her). There's also a less common version where she just received a letter from MLK (this one seems the least likely to me, not just because of how rarely that version comes up, but also because if such a letter existed, I think we would've seen it by now).
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying none of this happened. It's probable that there's some kernel of truth to the story, but we need to be realistic about the fact that we don't know exactly what it is, given the conflicting accounts. In that AMA comment, Nichols even acknowledges herself that "I had several conversations with him over the years, and it sounds like the stories have gotten mixed and confused."
