(NVR) - On a Saturday morning in August, a group of 11 book-loving women – 10 of them black boarded the Napa Valley Wine Train to get a day’s taste of the wine country’s good life – fine wines and gourmet meals aboard vintage train cars, with miles of grapevines as the backdrop.

But their journey would end abruptly after a squabble with train staff and an expulsion halfway up the line. The fallout would spread far beyond Napa County – at the speed of the Internet that spread the passengers’ anger to sympathizers worldwide and spawned a new symbol of indignation, #laughingwhileblack.

The Wine Train management’s apologies fell on deaf ears, and the rail service now faces a court battle with the women, who in October sued for $11 million in damages for racial discrimination.

“That was the most humiliating experience that I have ever had in my entire life,” a tearful Lisa Renee Johnson declared as she and other members of the book club, Sistahs on the Reading Edge, announced their suit in a San Francisco federal court. “This is 2015, and this just cannot happen again.”

No such strife was supposed to appear when the women, Contra Costa County residents ranging in age from 36 to 85, chose the Wine Train for the annual Napa Valley excursion they had organized for 17 years. When the train rolled out of Napa on Aug. 22, the group took up two tables in the rearmost of six Pullman cars, ready to share drinks and conversation over their book of the month, “A Man’s Promise” by Brenda Jackson.

What happened over the next 18 miles would become the source of controversy – and shine a harsh light on the Wine Train, one of the most visible symbols of Napa Valley tourism.

Johnson, an author who lives in Antioch, would later say her friends were “chitchatting” until a maître d’hotel twice warned them that other passengers were becoming uncomfortable with their noise level. A posting on the train line’s Facebook account – later taken down – declared its employees had to deal with “verbal and physical abuse” by the women “towards other guests and staff,” a claim club members hotly denied.

By the time the Wine Train reached St. Helena, the book club was no longer welcome. A company van was waiting to whisk the women back to Napa – but not before they were marched through all six cars and then off the train, according to Johnson, who shared her outrage over the affair on social media that same night.

By the next day, hordes of online viewers were reading and sharing the book club’s story, sending its reach ever farther like waves from a rock hurled into a pond. Bay Area news outlets described the Wine Train debacle, along with the New York Times, USA Today, television networks and even newspapers in the United Kingdom. The Register’s account of the incident gained more than 92,500 views in less than 48 hours.

And on Twitter and Facebook and numerous websites, supporters of the expelled women vented over what they saw as racist attitudes from the Wine Train’s employees.

“I’d bet a bottle of Merlot that every Black person reading this has been in at least one situation where they were with their friends in a predominately White setting and were having such a good time that a group of White people got annoyed,” Damon Young wrote on Very Smart Brothas, an online magazine for black readers.

An online petition demanding Wine Train leaders apologize to the women picked up 14,000 signatures. Three days after the expulsion, the company’s CEO Anthony Giaccio did issue a mea culpa, declaring itself “100 percent wrong in the handling of this issue,” walking back the Facebook claim of abusive behavior and offering the book club free use of a train car on a future trip. He also promised more training for employees on cultural diversity and sensitivity.

The peace offering was to no avail. Three days after the Wine Train’s apology, the 11 women – including one white member of the reading circle – retained a San Francisco lawyer with a reputation of taking on racial discrimination cases.

“My reaction was that the offer was not genuine and was basically a slap in their faces, when these women were kicked off a train, publicly humiliated and marched off the train with other passengers watching,” said Waukeen McCoy, who with the women announced their lawsuit Oct. 1.

Johnson, speaking for her fellow club members, said her friends’ beef was only with the Wine Train, and added the women intend to visit Napa Valley again.