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Martin Luther King Jr convinced actress Nichelle Nichols to stay on Star Trek, where she played Lt. Uhura, a symbol of the civil rights movement. King praised the show’s racial diversity and allowed his children to watch it. King forgave his attacker in a previous assassination attempt and is the only American besides George Washington to have a federal holiday in his honor. He skipped two grades and started college at 15.
Martin Luther King Jr was a Star Trek fan; in fact, actress Nichelle Nichols, who played the character Lt. Uhura in the television series, reportedly left the show until King convinced her to stay. Nichols was considered the symbol of the civil rights movement for playing an African-American woman in a leadership role on television. King is said to have told Nichols that Star Trek was the only show she would allow her children to watch because it had racial diversity in the cast of hers. After that 1967 meeting with King, Nichols continued to play Lt. Uhura on television until 1969, as well as other films afterward.
Read more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
King had another assassination attempt on his life 10 years before he was shot and killed in 1968, when a woman at a book signing stabbed him in the chest; however, King publicly forgave his attacker.
Besides George Washington, the first president of the United States, King is the only American to have a federal holiday in his honor.
King skipped two grades in school and started college at age 15.
