“…and I handed [Roddenberry] my resignation that I’d written out. And he took it, and he just, and I finally laid it on the desk and he looked at it and he said ‘Take the weekend, Nichelle’, ‘cause that’s how I know it was either Thursday or Friday, and he says ‘and think about it. And if you feel the same way the beginning of next week, if you still feel that way, think about this. It’s more than you think it is. Just think about it, and if you still want to go on by Monday morning, then… go with my blessings.’ And he took the resignation, and he stuck it in his desk drawer. And I said ‘Thanks Gene.’ and I skipped out of there, that went better than I thought. And as fate would have it, I’ve always used this word because I believe in fate, I believe it was fated, I was to be a celebrity guest at some fundraising thing in Beverly Hills…And so I went to do this on that Saturday night, and I had just been taken to the deus and been sat down when the organizer came over and said, ‘Miss Nichols, …listen, there’s someone here who said he is your biggest fan, …and he’s desperate to meet you… really want’s to meet you.’ And I said, ‘Oh, thank you’… And I stand up and I turn and I’m thinking, ‘It’s a Star Trek fan. He said a Star Trek fan. I’m looking for a young man who’s a Star Trek fan.’ I turn, and instead of a fan, there’s this face the world knows with this beautiful smile on it. And I remember thinking, ‘Whoever that fan is, is gonna have to wait because Dr. King, Dr. Martin Luther King, my leader, is walking toward me, at not ten feet away, with a beautiful smile on his face.’ And then, this man says, ‘Yes, Miss Nichols, I am that fan, I am your best fan, your greatest fan. And my family are your greatest fans. As a matter of fact, this is the only show on television that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to watch, to stay up and watch because it’s on past their bedtime.’ And I said, {mouths words}, and that was all I was able to say, my mouth just opened and closed. He said, 'We admire you greatly, you know.’ And he said some more things and 'the manner in which you’ve created this role has dignity’ and so forth… I said, 'Dr. King, thank you so much.’ And then I got the courage to say, 'and I really am going to miss my co-stars.’ And he said, 'What do you mean?’ Dead serious. 'What are you talking about?’ I said, 'Well, I’ve had an off-’ …going to say 'have an offer to star in’. I never got that far… He said, 'You cannot. You cannot.’ And I felt like that little boy Willis, 'Whatcha talkin’ 'bout, Willis?’, but you know I didn’t say that, but I was taken aback. And I didn’t say anything, I just looked at him. He said, 'Don’t you understand what this man has achieved?’ …and I thought deja vu all over again. I just looked at him. He said, 'For the first time on television we will be seen as we should be seen, every day. As intelligent, quality, beautiful, people who can sing, dance, …but who can go into space, who can be lawyers, who can be teachers, who can be prof- who are in this day, and yet you don’t see it on television? Until now.’ And he went on, so many of the things, perhaps some of the things he said, but I could say nothing, I just stood there, realizing every word that he was saying was the truth. And he said, 'If you leave, Nichelle, Gene Roddenberry has opened a door for the world to see us, if you leave, that door can be closed because you see, your role is not a black role, and it’s not a female role. He can fill it with anything including an alien.’ And at that moment, the world tilted for me, and I knew then I didn’t want to know it, 'cause I was going to go through some more turmoil for the rest of the week, but I knew that I was something else, that the world was not the same. And that’s all I could think of as Dr. King, everything that he had said, 'the world sees us for the first time as we should be seen.’ And I remember being angry come Sunday or whatever, 'Why me? Why should I have to-?’ Whatever happened, Monday morning I went to Gene, and I’m not sure to this day if I knew what I was going to say. He’s sitting behind that same danged desk, and he had whoever he was talking to had to leave 'cause I wasn’t there first, and I said, 'Gene, …if you still want me to stay, I’ll stay. I have to.’ And he opened his drawer, and he looked up at me and said, 'God bless Dr. Martin Luther King, somebody knows where I’m coming from.’ And he took out my resignation, which was torn into a hundred pieces, and handed me the pile, and we just stood there looking at each other, and I finally said, 'Thank you, Gene.’ And he said, 'Thank you, Nichelle.’ and my life’s never been the same since, and I’ve never looked back, I’ve never regretted it because I understood the universe had somehow, that universal mind had somehow put me there. And we have choices, are we going to walk down this road, or are we going to walk down the other? And it was the right road for me.”
-Nichelle Nichols, Archive of American Television
