That’s a common myth. There were several others before, some of which also had Shatner as one half of the kissing pair, believe it or not. Trek’s was definitely more high-profile, though, and with several of the others it may have been hard to notice with that particular combination with the quality of televisions at the time; European man with Asian woman probably wasn’t noticeable on a tiny '50s black and white TV.
Which sounds wholesome (and I don’t say it’s not at all) until you realize Nichols wanted to do something else, I think it was musicals, and King convinced her by saying “we need you to have representation. When you’re gone, anyone can take that position, even an alien” and so she stayed instead of self realization.
MLK Jr himself called Nichelle Nichols to encourage her to play Uhura. First interracial kiss on scripted television. She worked with NASA after Trek to encourage and recruit black and female astronauts.
That’s a common myth. There were several others before, some of which also had Shatner as one half of the kissing pair, believe it or not. Trek’s was definitely more high-profile, though, and with several of the others it may have been hard to notice with that particular combination with the quality of televisions at the time; European man with Asian woman probably wasn’t noticeable on a tiny '50s black and white TV.
Which sounds wholesome (and I don’t say it’s not at all) until you realize Nichols wanted to do something else, I think it was musicals, and King convinced her by saying “we need you to have representation. When you’re gone, anyone can take that position, even an alien” and so she stayed instead of self realization.
Certainly, worse things happened to her in her life.