Claiming Space
Infinite Possibilities
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura in the STAR TREK episode, "Journey to Babel." Season 2, episode 10 originally broadcast November 17, 1967
Afrofuturism tells the story of African Americans in a technological world. Connecting themes of space, liberation, digital activism, and 21st Century popular media, Afrofuturism preserves the rich legacies being used to imagine Black futures.
For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen.
Martin Luther King Jr. to Nichelle Nichols on her role as Lt. Uhura
Uhura’s Influence
Nichelle Nichols with astronauts Mike Foreman (left) and Leland Melvin (right) at a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) event for students.
In Afrofuturism, the “real” world can imitate the fictional world and vice versa. Nowhere is this more evident than in the life of Nichelle Nichols, whose 1966 appearance as Lt. Nyota Uhura of Star Trek captivated fans. An accomplished actor, singer, and dancer, Nichols considered leaving the series after its first season to pursue a career on Broadway. She remained however, due to a chance conversation with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King, a fan of the show’s multicultural vision of the future. King convinced Nichols to stay because of the vital impact she was making as a role model. Later, Nichols worked with NASA to recruit a new generation of Black astronauts.
Black Astronauts
Captain Edward J. Dwight, Jr., the first African American in NASA’s astronaut training program
Guion Bluford, NASA astronaut and the first African American in space
Astronaut Mae Jemison, Mission Specialist Working In an SL-J Module in space, 1992
Though Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Mendez (b. 1942) was the first person of African descent to travel to space (1980), Ed Dwight (b. 1933) was NASA’s first African American astronaut trainee (1961), though he was not ultimately selected. In 1983, Guion Bluford Jr. (b. 1942) became the first African American astronaut to reach space, traveling aboard the Challenger space shuttle. Since then, 21 African Americans have participated in NASA’s astronaut training program, including Mae Jemison, who in 1992 became the first African American woman to reach Space while traveling aboard the space shuttle Endeavor.
Hidden Figures
May 8th, 1943 article in The Journal and Guide highlighting Black female engineering students.
The West Area Computers at NASA’s Langley Research Center were Black women who worked as “human computers” from 1943 to 1958. Navigating discriminatory hiring practices and segregated facilities, their crucial yet largely unheralded contributions helped NASA achieve spaceflight. In 2019, the women received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their work as engineers, mathematicians, and physicists. These Black women are part of a tradition that includes Valerie L. Thomas, who developed digital imaging processing systems for NASA’s satellite program, and Christine Darden, a NASA engineer with expertise in supersonic flight.
