Essay Questions

Why is Nichelle Nichols included in Harrison's list of "bold women?"

Nichelle Nichols revolutionized the entertainment industry in an exceptionally bold way. She also shares the distinction of being one of the few people included on Harrison's list of "bold women."

It was in Nichols' most famous role (that of Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series) that she revolutionized the entertainment industry forever. In an episode entitled "Plato's Stepchildren" first broadcast in November 1968, Nichols and co-star William Shatner (who played Captain Kirk in the show) shared a kiss together, the first known time an interracial kiss was featured on T.V, thus starting the change of culture in the United States.

Shatner and Nichols' kiss, incidentally, was not played in the Deep Southern United States, the place in which attitudes about race needed to change the most at the time the episode was broadcast.

Why is Rosa Parks included in Harrison's list of "bold women?"

Along with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks is one of the most well-known names in the American Civil Rights movement. Parks' selfless and bold action ignited what later became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycotts - which helped to eventually usher in the passing of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson - when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man, something which was required by law at the time. Without Parks, the Civil Rights Act likely wouldn't have come about for a longer time.