Nichols offers insights to career, her choices at Parks event

Noted actress, singer and activist Nichelle Nichols speaks to a crowd on Friday at the Fort Scott Community College Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center while her son, actor Kyle Johnson, listens. Nichols visited Fort Scott during the annual Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture and Diversity at FSCC, which concludes Saturday. Nichols, who is most famous for portraying Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television series, received the 2009 Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons award during a tribute to Parks on Friday evening.
(Jason E. Silvers/Tribune photo)

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What many people may not know is that Lt. Uhura is not the role that Nichols originally read for when the show was being cast in the mid-1960s.

The 76-year-old actress, singer and activist was in Fort Scott this week for the Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture and Diversity at Fort Scott Community College. Nichols and her son, actor Kyle Johnson, participated in a discussion in front of an audience of FSCC instructors, staff, students and other community members on Friday in the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center.

"I didn't know what a Star Trek was," Nichols said, referring to how she felt when she first met series creator Gene Roddenberry when auditions and casting for the show began.

Before she was ultimately given the role of Lt. Uhura, the communications officer and later commander of the starship Enterprise, Roddenberry and producers of the show called Nichols in to read a scene from one of the show's planned episodes to test her acting ability. She read the lines for the Spock character, the alien member of the Enterprise's crew. The scene also involved two other characters of the show, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Capt. James T. Kirk.

"I said (to producers), 'Tell me something about Spock. What's she like?'," Nichols said. "Everybody knew about this Star Trek, but I didn't. I just read the role. Then they told me he was male."

After the reading, Nichols said Roddenberry jokingly told the show's casting agents to "see if Leonard Nimoy (who portrayed Spock) has signed his contract yet."

Roddenberry then told Nichols, "You had the part when you walked in, and especially now since we've seen you can really act," she said.

"I thought that (role) was a great addition to my resumé ... that it's on to Broadway from here," Nichols said.

Nichols, who arrived in Fort Scott on Wednesday, is this year's recipient of the Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons award, which is presented annually during the celebration to honor someone who has excelled in the areas that Parks did and exemplifies the spirit and strength of Parks' character. An evening of tribute to Parks on Friday evening featured the presentation of the award to Nichols.

Nichols sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, touring the United States, Canada and Europe before turning to acting. She began her professional singing and dancing career in her hometown of Chicago at the age of 14. She was discovered by Ellington who hired her to choreograph and perform a ballet of one of his musical suites. She went on to finish the tour as lead singer.

"I started as a ballerina and in musical theatre, honing my craft," Nichols said. "My ambition was to excel in Broadway."

She also appeared in the musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd," and earned high praise for her performance in the James Baldwin play, "Blues for Mister Charlie." She was later cast in several small parts in various musicals, but it was not until "Star Trek" that Nichols gained popular recognition by becoming one of the first black women featured in a major television series not playing a servant; her prominent supporting role as a female black bridge officer was unprecedented.

"After that (role), I became aware of the world I had tried to create, where men and women of all colors and persuasions, and even an alien, are going about in peaceful exploration," Nichols said. "It opened doors for me."

During the first year of the series, Nichols said she was tempted to leave the show, as she felt her role lacked significance, but a conversation with Martin Luther King, Jr., changed her mind.

Since that time, Nichols has made appearances in various films, TV shows and stage productions, and voiced her cartoon self in an episode of the animated TV series, "Futurama." She has also written an autobiography and two science fiction novels, and has volunteered her time working with NASA.

Johnson played the lead role in the Gordon Parks-directed film, "The Learning Tree."

"She blazed a trail," Johnson said of his mother on Friday.