On September 8, 1966, television viewers were introduced to the USS Enterprise when Star Trek: The Original Series debuted with “The Man Trap.” What started as Gene Roddenberry’s vision of humanity exploring the stars has grown into a six-decade franchise spanning numerous television series, feature films, animation, books and generations of devoted fans. This week, Star Trek officially celebrated its 60th anniversary, with events around the world honoring a franchise built around exploration, hope and the idea that humanity could eventually build a better future.
Part of what made that future feel so radical in 1966 was who was allowed to be part of it. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Star Trek put people of different races and nationalities aboard the Enterprise not simply as visitors, servants or stereotypes, but as highly trained officers working together as equals. That included Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, one of the first Black women to hold a continuing, non-stereotypical role of prominence on American television.
Uhara’s impact went far beyond a fictional spaceship. Nichols famously reconsidered leaving the series after Martin Luther King Jr. stressed how important it was for Black children to see her on television as an equal, and she later worked with NASA to help recruit women and people of color into the space program. Her influence helped connect Star Trek’s imagined future to the real-life push to make space exploration more inclusive.
And the franchise didn’t stop with Uhura. Over the next 60 years, Black performers would become engineers, doctors, Vulcans, Klingons, captains and commanders throughout the Star Trek universe. Avery Brooks eventually led an entire series as Benjamin Sisko, while Sonequa Martin-Green became the central hero of Star Wars: Discovery. LeVar Burton, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Russ and others also created characters who became integral pieces of Trek lore.
That history is worth celebrating because Star Trek has always been about imagining what’s possible. Long before diversity became a regular corporate talking point, the franchise was asking audiences to picture a future where Black people weren’t just present — they were helping lead humanity into whatever came next. In honor of 60 years of Star Trek, here are some of the best Black characters ever to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Nyota Uhura — Nichelle Nichols
There really isn’t another place to start. Uhura was a communications officer aboard the original Enterprise and became one of television’s most important examples of Black representation at a time when Black women were rarely given roles that displayed intelligence, authority, and professionalism. Nichols’ legacy eventually extended all the way to NASA, making Uhura’s importance bigger than Star Trek itself.
Benjamin Sisko — Avery Brooks
Captain Benjamin Sisko didn’t just command Deep Space Nine — he gave Star Trek one of its most layered protagonists. Deep Space Nine allowed Sisko to be a military leader, diplomat, father, widower and eventually a deeply spiritual figure, while his relationship with his son Jake gave viewers an especially meaningful depiction of Black fatherhood.
Geordi La Forge — LeVar Burton
As the longtime chief engineer of the Enterprise-D on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Geordi La Forge was routinely the man responsible for keeping one of Starfleet’s most advanced ships alive. His intelligence, problem-solving ability and trademark VISOR turned him into one of Trek’s most recognizable characters, with Burton eventually reprising the role decades later on Star Trek: Picard.
Michael Burnham — Sonequa Martin-Green
Michael Burnham made history when Star Trek: Discovery centered its story around a Black woman, giving the franchise a kind of lead it had never previously had. Burnham’s journey took her from disgraced Starfleet officer to captain of the Discovery, with Martin-Green anchoring the series throughout its five-season run.
Guinan — Whoopi Goldberg
Guinan may have technically been the bartender aboard the Enterprise-D, but anybody who watched The Next Generation knew she was much more than that. The centuries-old El-Aurian became a trusted confidante to Captain Picard and frequently seemed to understand what was happening before everyone else did, giving Whoopi Goldberg one of the franchise’s most mysterious and beloved recurring characters.
Worf — Michael Dorn
Worf was a Klingon, but Michael Dorn’s portrayal made him one of the most prominent characters ever brought to life by a Black actor in the franchise. After beginning on The Next Generation, Worf became a major part of Deep Space Nine and appeared across multiple movies and Picard, giving Dorn one of the longest and most memorable runs in Star Trek history.
Tuvok — Tim Russ
The calm, logical Tuvok was one of Captain Janeway’s most dependable officers during Star Trek: Voyager’s journey home. As Voyager’s Vulcan chief of security and tactical officer, he was often the steady presence balancing out a crew dealing with some very un-Vulcan levels of chaos.
Beckett Mariner — Tawny Newsome
Star Trek: Lower Decks gave the franchise a completely different energy, and Beckett Mariner was right at the center of it. Voiced by Tawny Newsome, Mariner was rebellious, hilarious and far more capable than her attitude sometimes suggested, eventually revealing layers that made her much more than the show’s resident troublemaker.
Dr. Joseph M’Benga — Babs Olusanmokun
Dr. M’Benga originally appeared briefly in The Original Series, but Strange New Worlds significantly expanded the character with Babs Olusanmokun in the role. The Enterprise’s chief medical officer is a compassionate doctor with a complicated past, and the newer series has given him emotional depth, family tragedy and a surprisingly formidable history as a fighter.
Travis Mayweather — Anthony Montgomery
Travis Mayweather served as helmsman aboard the NX-01 Enterprise during humanity’s earliest days of deep-space exploration. Having grown up aboard a cargo ship, Mayweather had considerably more practical experience in space than most of his crewmates on Star Trek: Enterprise, making him an important part of the franchise’s depiction of the era before the Federation was established.
Cleveland “Book” Booker — David Ajala
Introduced in Discovery’s third season, Cleveland Booker was a courier with a special connection to nature and living creatures. His relationship with Michael Burnham became one of the show’s central romances, while his own story eventually forced him to wrestle with grief, revenge and whether saving the future justified extreme measures.
Jake Sisko — Cirroc Lofton
Jake Sisko never needed a Starfleet uniform to matter. Watching him grow from Benjamin Sisko’s young son into a writer and journalist gave Deep Space Nine something different from almost every other Trek series, while the bond between Jake and his father remains one of the franchise’s strongest family relationships.
Sixty years after that first voyage, Star Trek’s Black legacy runs much deeper than a handful of supporting characters. From Uhura standing on the bridge in 1966 to Sisko commanding Deep Space Nine and Burnham sitting in the captain’s chair decades later, Black performers have repeatedly helped expand what the franchise’s optimistic vision of the future actually looks like — and more importantly, who gets to be part of it.
