She was the first Black woman to play a communications officer on a television show.
Kyle Johnson said that his mother died in New Mexico.
My mother died of natural causes last night. Johnson wrote on her official Facebook page that her light will remain for us and future generations to enjoy and learn from. Hers was a model for all of us.
Her role in the series earned her a lifelong honor from the fans of the show. She was honored for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and for including an interracial kiss with William Shatner that was never done before.
George Takei said that he would have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who passed away at age 89. My heart is heavy and my eyes are shining like the stars.
In addition to appearing in six big-screen spinoffs of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", Nichols frequented "Star Trek" fan conventions. She helped bring minorities and women into the space program.
She played the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers on the TV show "Heroes".
The first episode of the original "Star Trek" was aired on NBC. Gene Roddenberry wanted viewers to know that in the future, human diversity would be accepted.
In 1992 when a "Star Trek" exhibit was on view at the Smithsonian, Nichols said that the show was a reason to celebrate.
She remembered how Martin Luther King liked the show and praised her role. She met him at a civil rights gathering when she decided not to return for the show's second season.
He became very serious when she told him she was leaving the show. A world in 2008.
The civil rights leader told her that she had changed the minds of people.
It was a lightning bolt that Dr. King had foresight.
The first interracial kiss on a U.S. television series was broadcasted during the third season of the show. The aliens who were controlling the actions of the characters forced them into a kiss.
Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press that the kisssuggested that there was a future where these issues were not as important. The characters were not freaked out by the fact that a black woman kissed a white man. We're past it. That was a great message to convey.
The scene where the kiss happened off-screen was worried about the reaction from Southern television stations. According to her book, "Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories," she and Shatner flubbed lines to make the original take use.
There was no blowback despite concerns. The most fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on Star Trek was for one episode.
In a 2010 interview, Grace Dell Nichols said she hated being called "Gracie." She was told by her mother that she should have an alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe. It's called "Nicheelle."
Before coming to Hollywood for her film debut in 1959's "Porgy and Bess", she first worked as a singer and dancer in Chicago at the age of 14.
When other people complained that he was stealing scenes and camera time, he stood up to Shatner. She had a good relationship with the show's creator.
She said in her book that she and Roddenberry had an affair a couple of years before "Star Trek" started. They were lifelong friends.
Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, was a fan of the show.
She said she loved the show and watched it all the time. The two of them eventually met Nichols.
When her son said that she was suffering from advanced dementia, her schedule became limited.
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