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Posts tagged as “Lieutenant Uhura”

GBN Daily Drop: The Empire Strikes “Black” with Lando Calrissian 42 Years Ago, Making Sci-Fi Film History (LISTEN)

GBN Daily Drop: The Empire Strikes “Black” with Lando Calrissian 42 Years Ago, Making Sci-Fi Film History (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 4, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

History was made 42 years ago in May 1980 when the burgeoning Star Wars franchise added the character of Lando Calrissian to its universe played by 1970s heartthrob Billy Dee Williams.

To read about it and see links to sources, read on. To hear about it, press PLAY:

[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out here on the main website. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, May 4th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

[Excerpt from “Star Wars Main Theme”]

The Force was in full effect in May 1980 when Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back introduced intergalactic charmer and scoundrel Lando Calrissian to the franchise.

Played by 1970s heartthrob Billy Dee Williams, Lando was the second Black character to have a significant and recurring role in popular science fiction television or film. (Nichelle Nichols’ Lieutenant Uhura on the original Star Trek TV show was the first.)

The Star Wars universe later added the featured characters of Jedi Master Mace Windu played by Samuel L. Jackson in its prequel trilogy, John Boyega as Finn in The Force Awakens and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera in Rogue One.

And from the beginning, present in voice if not body, has been James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.

To learn about even more Black representation in Star Wars, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

Excerpts from the Star Wars theme by John Williams included under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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Sources:

'Star Trek' Icon Nichelle Nichols to Take Part in NASA Mission

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2017

“Star Trek” actressNichelle Nichols (photo via eurweb.com)

article by Ny Magee via eurweb.com
Star Trek icon Nichelle Nichols revealed Monday during a Reddit AMA that she will be involved in an upcoming NASA mission. She will be “among the first non-essential personnel to experience NASA’s newest telescope: SOFIA,” MSN reports.
“In September, I’m traveling on a NASA SOFIA flight, a second generation Airborn Observatory, which I am honored to have been invited too,” Nichols told fans before her “Ask Me Anything” began. The flight isn’t a mission into space: SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) is built into a Boeing 747, which will take off from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California according to ABCNews.


SOFIA is a second-generation airborne observatory and a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The first generation model originally flew in 1977, and Nichols was a passenger on that plane too. “SOFIA does not, sadly, fly into space. It’s an airborne observatory, a massive telescope mounted inside a 747 flying as high as is possible. I was on a similar flight, the first airborn observatory, back in 1977. It’s an amazing experience, you get a totally different perspective than from earth,” she wrote, adding, ”I do hope someone gets some great pictures.”
SOFIA was created to observe infrared energy in the universe, which enables it to study everything from star births to black holes, including nebulae, solar systems, comets, and asteroids, reports MSN.com.
Source: ‘Star Trek’ Icon Nichelle Nichols Going on NASA Mission | EURweb