Yeah, that's sort of the thing. I've seen Ms Nichols on several occasions and she always tells the story, it's in a very dramatic fashion, and it is a huge hit with the audience.
The conflicting accounts of Nichelle Nichols meeting MLK (with sources)
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As a former reporter, I love facts and getting accurate as can be to the truth of a matter. But I also go back-and-forth on stuff like this because sometimes the myth or legend is more inspiring and means more than the truth.
I am a walking contradiction. In other words, human.
That's the thing. At its root, it's a personal story, half of which is about how it affected the course of her life & career. That's the kind of thing a person might not even have clear in their own mind, until they get distance & perspective. Was she truly quitting, or just doubting? Did he tell her not to, or just convince her there was value to be had there, & how little might that even take when you are a personality like him? I'd think 2 words from a MLK might be persuasive.
Point being, whenever the search comes up about this topic, it inevitably calls into question the reliability of her statements over a lifetime, which has the potential to rob us of something inspirational. In that way, I just can't be bothered. She felt it was important, & it must've been to her. I'm good with that
Point being, whenever the search comes up about this topic, it inevitably calls into question the reliability of her statements over a lifetime, which has the potential to rob us of something inspirational. In that way, I just can't be bothered. She felt it was important, & it must've been to her. I'm good with that
Great if you're not concerned how accurate the story is or if the story is accurate at all you're all set. But Star Trek fact-checking is kind of a fun thing going on right now. I think it would be kind of cool to find out the Genesis of the story no pun intended. And seriously it takes a decade to process your encounter with a celebrity an inspirational man before you start repeating the story? If she had an encounter even a small one with MLK sometime in 1967 or early 1968 there's no way she's waiting 10 years to start telling the fans and media about that. Here's a person who's on stage repeatedly doing conventions trying to change things up for the audience's tell stories answer questions bring something new to the table and she's going to wait 11 years before she mentions that MLK convinced her to stay on the show ? She had to have told the story before that
Simply from the standpoint of public perception of a story, my personal take on the inspirational myth thing is that it would have been at least as inspirational for Nichols to have confessed what she imagined MLK would have said to her had they ever spoken under the indicated circumstances and always to hear that version as it was to hear multiple, differing versions of their communication. The truth, of course, could be something else entirely. And, full disclosure, I'm not a minority, so my judgment on what it might be inspirational to hear isn't really applicable.
Truth is more interesting than fiction to me, hence this project @Harvey and I are doing. If we were content with feel-good and inspirational mythos we would just accept that Star Trek pioneered everything.
But we think there's more to it than the obvious, "did she or didn't she meet him" thing here, and looking into it has raised some interesting questions about black roles on TV at the time and the response to them, e.g. the NAACP Image Awards. What do Uhura (preceded by Alden in the 2nd pilot), Sgt. Kinchloe (Hogan's Heroes), and Barney Collier (Mission: Impossible)—all on the air in the same period—have in common? They all do radio/electronics. Coincidence? Maybe.
But we think there's more to it than the obvious, "did she or didn't she meet him" thing here, and looking into it has raised some interesting questions about black roles on TV at the time and the response to them, e.g. the NAACP Image Awards. What do Uhura (preceded by Alden in the 2nd pilot), Sgt. Kinchloe (Hogan's Heroes), and Barney Collier (Mission: Impossible)—all on the air in the same period—have in common? They all do radio/electronics. Coincidence? Maybe.
Never thought of that.
This is becoming the strongest reason in my mind to doubt that she ever even met MLK, unless she was talking about it all those years and it just never got memo'd into the literature somehow.
I never noticed that. Julia was a couple of years later.
Hey, Maurice: Star Trek Lives! hit the bookstores in July 1975. Somebody should page through it to see if Nichelle's MLK story is in there. It might be, you know, unless you've already looked.
A raconteur. ( "Raconteusse?" ) Actresses are dramatic personae. I t gets a big response from the convention audience. We live in the era of truthiness, where that is what is valued, how it seems. The "feelz."
My guess is a passing comment at a gathering. Convincing her not to leave? Unlikely. IMHO
My guess is a passing comment at a gathering. Convincing her not to leave? Unlikely. IMHO
It’s not in that book.
How many sources did you find?
Given the medical and family difficulties Ms Nichols is experiencing, if she want to maintain the most elaborate of Rev. King stories, I say cool,
If Ms Nichols wanted to get up at a convention and tell the story on how she stormed Omaha Beach on D-day, have at it.
If Ms Nichols wanted to get up at a convention and tell the story on how she stormed Omaha Beach on D-day, have at it.
I want to believe.
How possible will that be in this case? The only way it can be done is if there's direct evidence from 1966 or 1967. Otherwise, we're at the mercy of Nichelle Nichols' account. In that case: I'd say the earlier, the more "accurate". Less time to work on polishing the story or perfecting embellishments.
Well this is why we are trying to find the earliest accounts. I am looking at an item right now penned by Nichols which discusses race and published just shy of four months after King's death and she says nothing about him even in the abstract.
And documentation of her telling the story doesnt appear until the 80s? Hm. To me it's kind of dismaying but not surprising people want to believe it whether it is actual truth or not. Because feelz.
I mean, it is cool if it happened, but if not, oh well. Also, I am by no means saying she's lying. But I don't know her, and plenty of people who are nice still play fast and loose with truth.
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