VIOLA DESMOND NOVEMBER 8-1946
Murphy Browne © November 4-2020
On Friday, November 8, 1946, seventy-four years ago, Viola Irene Davis Desmond, a 32-year-old African Canadian businesswoman was arrested at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. The “crime” for which she was arrested, was sitting in a seat designated for White people. Viola Desmond was harassed, injured, arrested and incarcerated for resisting the White supremacist system of Nova Scotia. On November 8, 1946, Desmond was traveling on business from her Halifax, Nova Scotia home when she experienced car trouble in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She took her car to a garage and while the car was being repaired, she decided to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre. Desmond sat in a seat on the main floor which was reserved for White people, instead of in the balcony to which African Canadians were relegated. When Desmond was ordered to move, she replied that she could not see from the balcony and that she would not move from the main floor.
The manager left the theatre and returned with a policeman. Together, the two burly White men dragged the slim, 4’ 11” Desmond into the street, injuring her in the process. She was incarcerated overnight and taken to court the next day without benefit of legal counsel. Without legal representation, she was tried and found guilty. The sentence handed down on November 9, 1946 was 30 days in jail or a fine of $20, plus $6 to the manager of the theatre. The manager was one of the two men who had injured her as he dragged her out of the cinema the night before.
Viola Desmond was brought up in a family of 10 siblings. Her parents were James Albert Davis and Gwendolin Irene (née Johnson) Davis. Viola opened Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax after studying at the Field Beauty Culture School in Montreal, one of the few institutions in Canada at the time that accepted African Canadian students. She continued her training in Atlantic City and in New York. Viola Desmond opened Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax, catering to the African Canadian community. She also opened a beauty school, the Desmond School of Beauty Culture, to train women in the beauty industry and expanded her business across the province. Her beauty school also attracted students from New Brunswick and Quebec. She created a line of beauty products, which were sold at venues owned by graduates of her beauty school.
On November 8, 1946, at 32 years old Desmond was a successful entrepreneur. Desmond’s business success was almost unheard of for women in Canada at the time and especially for African Canadian women. On November 9, 1946, she paid the 26 dollars fine that was imposed on her in court and then challenged the guilty verdict in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Desmond was supported in her struggle for justice by fellow African Canadian and civil rights activist Carrie Best who publicized the case in “The Clarion” newspaper.
Carrie Best was born on March 4, 1903 in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia to James and Georgina Ashe Prevoe. On June 25, 1925 she and Albert Theophilus Best were married and they had one son James Calbert Best. In December 1941, several African Canadian female secondary school students were forcibly removed from the Roseland Theatre when they refused to move from the "whites only" section of the cinema. Carrie Best investigated and found that segregation was practiced at the cinema. After writing to the owner and being ignored, on Monday, December 29, 1941 she and her teenage son James Calbert Best went to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre. They refused to sit in the balcony where African Canadians were forced to sit and sat in the "whites only" section. When staff ordered the mother and son to leave, they refused. Police were called and the police dragged them out of their seats.
Best filed a civil suit against the management of the Roseland Theatre and the case, Best v. Mason and Roseland Theatre, 1942, was tried in May 1942 before Judge Robert Henry Graham of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Judge Graham dismissed Carrie Best’s civil suit against the Roseland Theatre and ordered her to pay $156.07 to the owner of the Roseland Theatre. Carrie Best was galvanized into publishing her newspaper The Clarion after she lost to the Roseland Theatre in court. The Clarion became the first newspaper owned by an African Canadian in Nova Scotia.
Viola Desmond challenged the November 9, 1946 guilty verdict to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Although she received support from many African Canadians and the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP) the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia upheld the guilty verdict. The guilty verdict remained in place until April 15, 2010 when a posthumous pardon was granted. On 15 April 2010, Viola Desmond was granted a free pardon by Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis at a formal ceremony in Halifax. The pardon was accompanied by a public declaration and apology from Premier Darrell Dexter, recognizing that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice and that charges should never have been laid. During the 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, we are reinforcing our stance that discrimination and hate will not be tolerated.”
While Desmond did not win her battle against segregation in Canada, she inspired others, including her youngest sibling Wanda Robson. Robson’s advocacy on her sister’s behalf set matters in motion that resulted in Desmond’s life story becoming public and recognized, followed by various honours.
In 2010, the Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice was established at Cape Breton University and in 2012, Canada Post issued a postage stamp bearing her image. A Heritage Minute short film, relating her November 8, 1946 ordeal was released during African Heritage Month, in February 2016. On July 7, 2016, a Halifax harbour ferry the “Viola Desmond,” was launched. In January 2018, she was named a National Historic Person by the Canadian government. On November 19, 2018, the $10 bill featuring Viola Desmond’s image was released. The bill also features a map of the North End of Halifax, where Desmond lived and worked, and a quote from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination.” The Canadian Museum of Human Rights is featured on the back of the bill. In April 2019, the Viola Desmond $10 bill won the “International Bank Note Society” Banknote of the Year Award for 2018. In February 2019, the Royal Canadian Mint announced the release of its first “Black History Month” coin, a silver coin featuring an engraved image of Viola Desmond. Her memory has also been honoured with an annual Viola Desmond Award ceremony at Ryerson University in Toronto, for the past 12 years. At 50 years old, Viola Desmond transitioned to the ancestral realm on February 7, 1965 while she was living in New York. She is buried at Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sadly but not surprisingly, on October 3, 2020, “a sign directing visitors to Viola Desmond's headstone at the Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax was defaced with racial slurs.”
Murphy Browne © November 4-2020
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