|
Who:
|
Hairdresser, teacher and businesswoman.
|
|
What:
|
Challenger of Canada’s racial discrimination.
|
|
Where:
|
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
|
|
When:
|
1914-1965.
|
|
Why:
|
Started the civil rights movement in Canada.
|
Viola Desmond, a successful Halifax beautician, teacher at the local beauty school, and
businesswoman, was the focus of one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination
in Nova Scotian and Canadian History. Her actions against racial segregation took place
nine years before Rosa Parks sat in the white section of a bus.
On November 8, 1946, Viola was on her way to Sydney, Nova Scotia when her car failed in New Glasgow. When the mechanic told her that it couldn’t be fixed until the next day,
she decided to attend a movie at the Roseland Theatre.
Though Viola asked for a house seat ticket, the teller sold her a ticket for the balcony because
of the prevailing racial segregation. When she had settled herself in the house seats
an usher came and told her she had to move. She offered to pay the difference in ticket price
to remain in her seat, but the usher would not allow it. When she refused to move, the manager came
over and told her she had to move to the balcony. She refused again, and the manager called the police.
When they forcefully removed her, they injured her knee and hip and she also lost a shoe and
her purse.
Viola Desmond was in jail for twelve hours and was charged for attempting to defraud
Nova Scotia. The charge was based on her refusal to pay the ¢1 amusement tax difference between
the ¢3 charged to those sitting in the balcony and the ¢2 charged to those sitting downstairs.
She would not agree to pay more than the white customers for the same show. She was ordered
to pay costs to the manager of the cinema.
The judge sentenced her to pay a fine of $20 and 30 days in jail for tax evasion. The NSAACP
(Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), which had just recently
formed helped Desmond to raise the money for the fine and legal fees and to also publicize
what was happening.
Carrie Best, who was the founder of Nova Scotia’s first newspaper for Blacks, wrote about
the story in The Clarion (which started in New Glasgow).
All appeals to have the conviction overturned failed, but the case was used to fight against
racial segregation in Canada. The government finally repealed the laws on segregation in 1954.
|
