10 Ways Star Trek Was Socially Progressive

8. Dr Martin Luther King Jr Supported It.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSq_UIuxba8 Martin Luther King, to many people the face of the Civil Rights Movement, is said to have phoned Nichelle Nichols urging her not to quit the show. He told her that the involvement of a prominent black woman was inspirational, and for her to leave the show would have been detrimental to the Black Freedom Movement. Although King had his faults and infidelities, it cannot be ignored that a man attributed with a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement recognized the symbolic and powerful role the media could play in cementing the legal successes in the cultural collective consciousness.