Here Are The Best Black Star Trek Characters

Sixty years after Star Trek first hit television, we're looking back at the Black characters who helped shape one of sci-fi's most important franchises. Source: Ethan Miller / GettyOn September 8, 1966, television viewers were introduced to the USS Enterprise when Star Trek: The Original Series debuted with “The Man Trap.” What started as Gene Roddenberry’s vision of humanity exploring the stars has grown into a six-decade franchise spanning numerous television series, feature films, animation, books and generations of devoted fans. This week, Star Trek officially celebrated its 60th anniversary, with events around the world honoring a franchise built around exploration, hope and the idea that humanity could eventually build a better future. Part of what made that future feel so radical in 1966 was who was allowed to be part of it. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Star Trek put people of different races and nationalities aboard the Enterprise not simply as visitors, servants or stereotypes, but as highly trained officers working together as equals. That included Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, one of the first Black women to hold a continuing, non-stereotypic...