Sonequa Martin-Green Expresses Her Gratitude to Whoopi Goldberg After She Becomes the First Black Female Star Captain on ‘Star Trek’ Franchise

Sonequa Martin-Green visited “The View” to talk about becoming the first Black female starship captain on “Star Trek: Discovery.” Martin-Green ended up thanking host Whoopi Goldberg and Nichelle Nichols, both of whom she believes paved the way for her to play her role of Michael Burnham. 

The hosts of “The View” thanked Martin-Green for coming on the show and congratulated her on becoming the first Black female starship captain. Martin-Green proceeded to spill her thank-yous to Goldberg and what she has done for Martin-Green over the years. “You mean a lot to me. A lot of your work I shared with my family growing up so you kind of hold those memories with me: ‘The Color Purple’ and ‘Made in America,’ and ‘Ghost.’ ” 

Martin-Green went on to share how much she has been grieving this year after losing both of her parents and how Goldberg’s work means so much to her now and has paved the way for her character on “Star Trek: Discovery.” “I lost my parents recently so it really means a lot to me but I also wanna say that making history in this way and being cemented in history in this way as the first black female captain of a “Star Trek” show, what I have learned, I’ve been growing a lot and changing a lot lately on the heels of losing my parents and I realized that I was very self-oriented about it all,” Martin-Green said. 

Martin-Green felt grateful to the women who came before her in the franchise and was exceedingly thankful to be able to thank Goldberg in person. “I thought it was up to me to do it perfectly and do everything right to homage to the people who have come before me, but this is not my accomplishment. It’s the accomplishment of those that have come before me. I simply stepped on the path that was already laid for me by Nichelle [Nichols] and by you. And so, I am your accomplishment and I thank you,” Martin-Green said. 

Martin-Green did share more about her life and in addition to losing both of her parents and her brother-in-law, she also gave birth to her daughter, who is now a year old. She also explained that she has waited long enough to have a big conversation with her 6-year-old son about race and violence against Black people. “It’s a lot. It’s time. It has to be. Because as genuine and as innocent as he is, a lot of people do not see him this way,” Martin-Green said. And when some of the hosts said that some people will think he’s too young to have that conversation, Martin-Green countered it by saying, “He’s not too young to get shot, is he?”