When actress Phylicia Rashad was a child, segregation was legal in the United States. Growing up as a young African-American girl in 1950s Texas was a hostile experience It wasnt like people loved the color of your skin, Rashad tells Oprah: Where Are They Now? but Rashads mother made a conscious choice to protect her two daughters as much as possible from the harsh reality.

My mother was determined that her children would not be scarred by this ignorance, Rashad says. So, when there was someplace we wanted to go and we couldnt go because of segregation, she would say, We wont be able to go there because its a private club and were not members of that club.

Rashads parents divorced when she was 6, and seven years later, her mother moved Rashad and her sister (actress Debbie Allen ) to Mexico City to avoid the segregation that existed in the U.S.