Taraji P. Henson, star of the hit series "Empire," tells Uptown Magazine she handled the stressful problem of her 20-year-old son being racially profiled while a student at USC by talking him into transferring to a historically black college.

Henson, known as Cookie Lyon, a woman who fiercely protects her three sons in her role on "Empire," hinted to magazine in the February/March cover issue that she felt she had little choice.

"My child has been racially profiled," she said. "He was in Glendale, California, and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn't give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for."

Henson later said, "Then he's at University of Southern California, the school that I was going to transfer him to, when police stopped him for having his hands in his pockets. So guess where he's going? Howard University. I'm not paying $50K so I can't sleep at night wondering is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus."

The 44-year-old Henson has seen her career zoom to new heights this year based on her role in "Empire," where she stars alongside Terrence Howard. The Academy Award-nominated actress has also starred in such films as "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Baby Boy," "The Family That Preys," "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" and "Hustle & Flow," where she again starred alongside Howard.

Henson is a native of Washington, D.C., where the Howard University campus is located. Recently, Martese Johnson, a student at the nearby University of Virginia, was left bloodied and beaten by police in an encounter they initially alleged began after he was stopped trying to enter a bar with a fake license.

Attorneys for Johnson have since indicated they plan to fight all the charges lodged against their client and stress the ID card in question was valid.