In light of the Oscar whiteness controversy, I looked into black actors in Sci Fi. Here is an excerpt of an interesting blog post on the subject:

“It’s troubling that most imagined Utopias in Hollywood are so racially homogeneous. Hollywood’s perfect future is a world without war, hunger, or non-white people. So here is my look at black people in sci-fi (primarily space operas and not alternate realities/alternate histories or techno-thrillers — because my concern in this entry is with how filmmakers of various times imagine the future). Nevertheless, I have to first mention The world, the flesh and the devil (1958) because it starred (and was co-produced) by Harry Belafonte, making it the first sci-fi film starring a black character.  To this day post-apocalyptic alternate realities are one of the preferred method for film and TV-makers to make (usually ham-fisted) observations about race (e.g. The walking dead).” Read more…