Viola Desmond

Introduction

Good morning! My name is Gurnoor, and for today's black history month assembly, I will be talking about Viola Desmond and how she challenged racial segregation at a film theatre. So, lets begin!

Introduction

About Viola Desmond

Viola Irene Desmond was a black Canadian businesswoman in Nova Scotia. She was born on July 6th, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but she died on February 7th, 1965 in New York, New York at age 50. Viola grew up with 9 siblings and her parents are James Albert Davis and Gwendolin Irene Davis.

About Viola Desmond

Viola's Education

Viola Desmond went to Bloomfield High School. She was trained to be a teacher, but she decided to join her husband, Jack Desmond, in a combined barbershop, hairdressing salon, and a beauty parlour on Gottingen Street. Since she was of African descent, she was not allowed to learn to become a beautician in Halifax. So, she left and received beautician training in Montreal, Atlantic City and one of Madam C.J. Walker's beauty schools in New York! After she finished her training, she flew back to Halifax to start her own salon called " The Desmond School of Beauty Culture". She opened her own salon so that black woman wouldn't have to travel as far as she did to receive proper training to become a beautician.

Viola's Education

Viola's Arrest

Viola went on a business trip to sell her beauty products. While she was driving in New Glasgow on November 8th, 1946, her car broke down. She got told she would have to wait a day before the parts to fix it became available. To pass time, she went to see The Dark Mirror at the Roseland Film Theatre. She bought a ticket, asking for a main floor seat. She didn't know that in New Glasgow tickets sold to "blacks", were balcony seat tickets and tickets sold to "whites", were main floor seat tickets. As she took a seat on the main floor, the manager told Viola she didn't have the ticket for that seat. Viola returned to the ticket booth where she got informed that it was against their policy to give a black person a main floor seat. Viola returned to the main floor and she refused to sit where the "blacks" were supposed to sit. She got forcibly removed from the theatre and she got arrested. She stayed in jail overnight and she never got informed about her right to legal advice, bail, or a lawyer.

Viola's Arrest

Viola's Court Trial

The next morning, she was brought to court and she got charged with attempting to defraud the provincial government based on her alleged refusal to pay a one cent tax difference. Viola was willing to pay the tax difference, but her offer was refused. The judge chose to fine Viola $26. Six of those dollars were awarded to the manager of the Roseland Theatre. At no point During the law suit, was the issue of race mentioned. It was clear that Desmond's real offence was to violate the rule that black people were to sit in the balcony seats, segregated from White people on the main floor.

Viola's Court Trial

Life After Trial

After Viola's trial, she shut down her business and she moved to Montreal where she went to a business collage. She eventually moved to New York where she died. She is buried at Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Life After Trial

How Viola Changed the World

Viola Desmond changed the world by protesting for her seat. She didn't care how the Roseland Film Theatres workers weren't treating her correctly and how they were racially discriminating her. She was powerful, and she believed in herself. To me, Viola Desmond is powerful, strong, brave and very inspiring.

How Viola Changed the World

Viola's Legacy

Decades later, Viola Desmond's story began to receive public attention, through the efforts of her sister Wanda Robson. On April 15th, 2010, Viola Desmond was granted a free pardon by Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis at a ceremony in Halifax. At the formal ceremony, Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs and Economic and Rural Development Percy Paris said, “With this pardon, we are acknowledging the wrongdoing of the past,” and “we are reinforcing our stance that discrimination and hate will not be tolerated.” Also, in 2010, the Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice was established at Cape Breton University. In 2012, Canada Post issued a postage stamp bearing her image. In February 2016, a Heritage Minute relating Viola's story was released during Black History Month. International Women’s Day, in March 2016, the Bank of Canada launched a public consultation to choose the first Canadian woman to appear on the face of a Canadian banknote. On December 8th, 2016, it was announced that Desmond would appear on the face of the $10 note in a series of bills to be released in 2018. In 2018, Viola was named a National Historic Person.

Viola's Legacy

Conclusion

Thank you for listening to my presentation about Viola Desmond and I hope you learned something new about her.

Conclusion