King's Legacy: NASA hired Nichelle Nichols to recruit blacks and women to become astronauts, and she and Dr. Mae Jemison, who became NASA's first black female astronaut in 1987, have remained friends
For Black TV Role Models, You Can Thank Rev. King
January 17, 2005
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is honored today for so many civil rights causes he championed - equality in voting, public transportation, accommo- dations, education, housing, labor. There was no part of society that his powerful hand didn't touch or his moving oratory didn't affect.
Even television.
It's no coincidence that several shows emerged in the `60s at the height of the civil rights movement, breaking down racial barriers by placing blacks in prominent roles. Television is, after all, a medium that affects how children and adults view society, and there were a few standouts who paved the way.
There was "Julia," starring Diahann Carroll, the first television show to have a black lead actress; "I Spy," co-starring Bill Cosby, the first black actor to have a starring role on a dramatic series on television; and "Star Trek," which featured black actress Nichelle Nichols in a recurring role as Lt. Uhura. Nichols has the distinction of having the first multiracial kiss on television, with William Shatner, who played Capt. Kirk. (Some might question the excitement level over that particular historic smooch.)
Cynics might sneer at the thought of a communications officer from a mythical starship breaking down racial barriers. But King disagreed, and he spoke out about it.
When Nichols considered quitting the show at the end of her first season in 1967 to return to musical theater, it was King who encouraged her to stay.
Nichols told the North County (Calif.) Times in an interview last year about a significant encounter she had with King. She was at a convention, and King asked to meet her, telling her he admired her work and that he was a big "Star Trek" fan.
When Nichols told him she was leaving the show, King told her she couldn't leave.
"Don't you know you have the first non-stereotypical role in television?" she said King told her. "For the first time, the world will see us as we should be seen - people of quality in the future. You created a role with dignity and beauty and grace and intelligence. You're not just a role model for our children but for people who don't look like us to see us for the first time as equals."
Nichols said she had never seen her character in that light before. She stayed on until the series ended in 1969. NASA hired Nichols to recruit blacks and women to become astronauts, and she and Dr. Mae Jemison, who became NASA's first black female astronaut in 1987, have remained friends.
As for how a television role can affect a child's perception of race, Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg was a big "Star Trek" fan, and when she went to the producer, Gene Roddenberry, and asked to have a part on the show, she explained the impact that Nichols had on her.
"When I was 9 years old, `Star Trek' came on," she said. "I looked at it, and I went screaming through the house: `Come here, mum; everybody come quick, come quick; there's a black lady on television, and she ain't no maid!'``
Goldberg then said, "I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be, and I wanted to be on `Star Trek.'"
Roddenberry told her, "I'll write you a role," and Goldberg ended up in with a key part on a later series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Carroll, whose career had been in music, winning a Tony for "No Strings," came on the television scene in 1968 in "Julia." She played Julia Baker, a young middle-class nurse in the aerospace industry whose husband was killed in Vietnam, leaving her to raise her son alone. The show was a sweet alternative to zany - dare we say stupid - shows like "Hogan's Heroes" and "Gomer Pyle." It earned her both a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination as best actress. Nielsen initially rated it as the No. 1 show, and it ended up its first season in the top 10.
If you can gauge popularity by consumerism (and why not?), Mattel made a line of dolls called "Talking Julia."
"Well, I suppose this is kind of progress," Carroll said. "First, television pretended there wasn't any prejudice. Then it pretended there weren't any racial differences. Now it has reached the point where it cannot only acknowledge there are differences, but a white man can write jokes for a black woman to say about them."
The show did get some criticism that it was unrealistic and didn't represent lifestyles of black people, but one could argue that other TV fare at that time, like "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres," wasn't exactly reality either. By the third season, Carroll decided the show had run its course.
But it did break the mold of all-white sitcoms and paved the way for other series such as "Room 222," "Sanford and Son" and "The Jeffersons," which tackled racial issues that "Julia" left alone.
In "I Spy,' which ran from 1965 to 1968, Cosby joined forces with Robert Culp as American agents doing espionage. Cosby played a Temple University graduate and Rhodes scholar dedicated to his mother and sister in Philadelphia, multilingual and quick-witted - striking a few familiar chords in his own life.
He won three Emmy Awards for that show, and it marked the beginning of a lifetime commitment to developing a more positive portrayal of blacks on television.
That effort culminated in "The Cosby Show," which ran from 1984 to '92 and earned No. 1 ratings for years and several Emmys. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, described the show as "the most positive portrayal of black family life that has ever been broadcast."
Time magazine reported on the lovable family of Dr. Cliff and Clair Huxtable: "The fact that the family is black, without making a particular point of it, is an encouraging sign of maturity in matters of race."
Lou Rawls, Baby Crawls
Grammy- winning R&B singer Lou Rawls and his wife, Nina, celebrated their first wedding anniversary with the birth of a son.
Aiden Allen Rawls was born Monday in Akron, Ohio, and weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces, the singer's publicist said Thursday.
It's the first child for Nina Rawls, while her 69-year-old husband has three grown children.
Queen Of The Grammys
Hip-hop star and actress Queen Latifah will host and perform at the 47th Grammy Awards ceremony Feb. 13, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
Latifah may be able to celebrate a win of her own that evening: She is nominated for a Grammy in the best jazz vocal album category, for her set of soul, blues and pop interpretations on "The Dana Owens Album." She won a best solo rap performance Grammy in 1995 for "U.N.I.T.Y."
Take That, Mr. Blackwell!
Just days after being ranked No. 6 on Mr. Blackwell's annual worst-dressed list, Serena Williams unveiled her new line of lime-green- and-white Nike tennis apparel.
She co-designed a three-in-one dress and knee-high boots.
Williams, No. 7 in the world tennis rankings, modeled the outfit Thursday in Melbourne, stepping out of the dress to reveal what she'll be wearing at the Australian Open next week: a top and shorts that are just "ideal" for practice.
Unconventional? "You bet!" she said.
