Here is my research paer.  It's called "Star Trek and the Civil Rights movement".  I hope you like it.  If you would like more information then click on a picture.  Some pictures have links.

"The time:  the 23rd century;  the place:  aboard a huge spaceship, larger than the largest ocean liner populated with the many racial groups on this planet.  A spaceship: Earth" (Takei np).  Gene Roddenberry was a true American who believed in the ideal of equality for all people.  He expressed this through his creation Star Trek which has become his most famous and most popular work of art.  The Enterprise boldly went where no one had

ever dared to go before.  It was a show that charaterized the way that society in America has been--through its plots, actors, and characters.  Star Trek first aired during a very sensitive time in our nation's history.  It was a time when people were questioning the way the government dealt with certain issues like racism and taking a stand to change it.  "Since the end of the Civil War many organizations had been created to promote the goals of racial...equality in America...It was not until the sixties that a hundred years of effort would begin to garner the attention necessary to force a...change" (Psychedelic np).  During the Civil Rights movement many groups were formed that promoted peaceful methods (Psychedelic np).  Star Trek aided in these movements with its optimistic views of what it might be like in a world that was peaceful and without any trace of discrimination, and any outside discrimination looked inconceivably stupid.  Roddenberry knew he could not say this directly so he put a creative twist on the social and political problems of the time.  Star Trek:  The Original Series reflects the ideas and the ideals of the American Civil Rights movements through symbolism.      The Civil Rights movement focused mainly on the segregation of blacks in the South, but at its core, it tried to achieve equality for all people.  During the 1950's, when segregation still held strong in the American South, a great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., jump started the struggle for civil rights.  The aim of the Civil Rights movement was to ensure basic rights.  Blacks "have wanted the same rights as other Americans and an end to color discrimination and prejudice" (Blumberg 2,4).  Black people, along with other racial and ethnic groups that had been continuously discriminated against, grew very weary of their mistreatment.  If blacks and other minorities had accepted themselves as inferior, then there would not have been a problem.  But blacks began to see themselves as people (Washington 85).  Dr. King stated that when the oppressed rise against oppression ther is nithing to stop that short of freedom.  He continues, "Realism compels us to admit that the struggle will continue until freedom is a reality for all the oppressed peoples of the world" (Washington 7-8, 12, 82).  Dr. King did everything in his power to gain freedom for the people of America at all costs.  During an interview for

Playboy, Dr. King told the story of when his eldest daughter asked him why he had gone to jail.  He told her that he was "involved in a struggle to make conditions better for the colored people, and thus for all people."  He tried to make her understand that someone needed to make the world a better place for all children (Washington 341-342).  Dr. King spoke of his ideals for the future in his most famous speech given at Washington, D.C. in August of 1963:         I have a dream...deeply rooted in the American dream...that...this nation will

rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:  "We hold these truths to be self evident; that         all men are created equal."  I have a dream...that...One day...little black boys and black girls         will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers...(King np).

To gain this equality, passive resistance was used.  This was the same methos used by Mohandas Ghandi when he led a revolution to free India from Great Britain's tight grasp.  Dr. King led a revolution to free the black people of the racist injustice they had endured for so long.  He believed that violence is immoral and defeats the purpose of the Civil Rights movement (Washington 83).  "Black Americans have had to wage a continuing struggle for political, economic, and social rights in the United States" (Blumberg 1), but the important question was how should the struggle for justice be obtained?  Violence does not solve social problems;  it only creates new ones.  If tactics are used, then the future generations will have to pay for it (Washington 7).  Because the future was exactly what these people were trying

to change, they had to over come their temptation to aggressively impel whites into viewing all other races and ethnic groups as equal.  Nonviolence is nonaggressive physically, but it is strongly aggressive spiritually.  The result of nonviolence is community while the result of violence is betterness.  With nonviolence, it is not to defeat the opponent but to win him over.  Understanding and good will toward all men must be at the forefront of the movement if it is to be successful (Washington 7-8,12,82).  In order to prove Dr. King's ideals correct, Roddenberry related them to a futuristic setting that showed people what it would be like without any prejudice.      "I have no belief that Star Trek depicts the actual future, it depicts us, now, things we need to understand about that" (Snyder np).  Roddenberry's goal was to expose people to the realities of the racial issues in America.  Many people were very resistant to these ideas so Roddenberry had to use symbols.  He took the social and political problems of the time and put them in an ideal future setting.  Roddenberry tacitly stated that all people of every race could not only coexist but also care for one another, and by doing this he was heralding an optimistic future that touched the audience (Koenig np).  Roddenberry used Star Trek to unmask the real stupidity of hate and discrimination.  In one episode, the crew of the Enterprise came across a man of an unknown alien species.  The man, Lokai, was white on one side of his body and black on the other;  he was from the planet Cheron.  Lokai was an escaped slave who had been running away from a man for 5,000 years.  Soon afterward the Enterprise intercepted Lokai's predator, Bele, who was also white on one side and black on the other.  Since both

Lokai and Bele's vessels were badly damaged, they wer forced to seek refuge with the Enterprise until they could be taken to the nearest space station.  As Lokai made continuous efforts to gain followers for his cause to fight back the social injustice he and his people endured, Bele tried logically and persuasively to explain to Captain Kirk and first Officer Spock why Lokai was an inferior race compared to his own.  Bele explained that Lokai was white on the right, and he [Bele] was black on the right side--a detail everyone else failed to notice.  When Lokai and Bele were finally returned to Cheron, they found nothing to be left but ruins.  Every person on the planet was killed or had died as a result of a horrific war--a war that could have been avoided if only the people of Cheron could have over looked their differences.  Despite all that had happened, Lokai and Bele still chased each other and beamed down to the planet.  They left the crew wondering what had exactly happened.  The show ended

with an explanation from Mr. Spock:           "...all that mattered to them was their hate."           Uhura:  "Do you suppose that's all they ever had, sir?"           Kirk:  "No, but it's all they have left." ("Let That" np) Roddenberry used the symbol of Lokai and Bele to show the terror that could take place as a result of hate.  Lokai had good intentions.  He wanted freedom for his people, and would do anything to get that, but he allowed his hate to consume him and his people into the monsters that they were trying to defeat.  Unlike Dr. King's followers, Lokai's people succeeded in destroying their neighbors instead of what they truly wanted gone.

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