Nimoy held out until his minority co-stars were added to the cast. In that same 2014 interview, Nimoy said that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry called him the “conscience” of the series because of his compassion for others.
Another story regarding Nimoy’s big heart began circulating just moments after his death about a letter he received in 1968 via the teen magazine, Fave.
A biracial girl living in Los Angeles who was a fan of the show wrote ‘Mr. Spock’ to share the issues she was having reconciling her mixed heritage and feeling like an outsider in her white neighborhood.
Nimoy was so moved by this that he wrote a moving and lengthy response to the girl using Spock’s upbringing as a half-human child in a Vulcan society as a comparison.
Later in his life, Nimoy came to embrace the fact that he was synonymous with the character he was best known for and appeared at many comic book conventions. Of the original Star Trek cast, he was the only member to appear in J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the franchise.
Nimoy was 83.
How Leonard Nimoy Helped Minorities was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
