Broadway great and multitalented entertainer Diahann Carroll grew up in pre-Civil-Rights America, when segregation gripped much of the country and racism left many African Americans feeling "hopelessly powerless" against an unfair system. As a young girl New York City, Carroll was spared exposure to many injustices of that time, but when she left New York for the first time, she had a painful revelation about what other black individuals faced on a regular basis.

As Carroll tells "Oprah's Master Class" in the above video, the incident occurred when she and her mother boarded a train bound for North Carolina to visit some family. When the train made a stop in the nation's capital, Carroll had an experience she's never forgotten.