At one point, “Star Trek” actor Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, decided to leave the television series after its first season for a role on Broadway, per Time. The series creator, Gene Roddenberry, urged her to think about the decision over the weekend before making it official. At a fundraiser that weekend, a member of the staff told Nichols that her “biggest fan” was “desperate” to meet her. The fan in question was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

King told Nichols that “Star Trek” was the only TV show he allowed his children to stay up late to watch. When she told him she was planning to leave the show, he urged her not to, pointing out that she represented one of the few examples of African-American characters on American TV. He pointed out that the role of Lieutenant Uhura was not specifically intended for a Black woman, and that if Nichols left, the role could be recast with a white, and even male, actor.

Of course, King was known for being a powerful and persuasive speaker. In making the case that Nichols represented the vast possibilities for what Black women could accomplish, he successfully convinced her to remain in the role for the show’s full three-season run. “He told me not only that I shouldn’t but I couldn’t leave,” Nichols recounted in a 2016 interview for The Guardian. “He knew more than I knew. He knew more about me, where I was going to in my life, than I did.”