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Jan 27, 2013 · In 1946, Viola Desmond challenged racial discrimination when she refused to leave the segregated Whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Viola Desmond was arrested, jailed overnight and convicted without legal representation for an obscure tax offence as a result.
Jul 2, 2024 · Viola Desmond (born July 6, 1914, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada—died February 7, 1965, New York, New York, U.S.) was a Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian who built a career as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture.
Dec 8, 2016 · The civil rights icon and new face of the Canadian $10 bill refused to give up her seat in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre nine years before Parks's famous act of civil...
An African-Canadian businesswoman, she confronted the anti-Black racism that African Nova Scotians routinely faced by refusing to move from her seat in the “whites-only” section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow on 8 November 1946. For this she was arrested, jailed overnight, and fined.
Jul 3, 2019 · Who is Viola Desmond? This biography details how she fought segregation, leading her to become the first Canadian woman on the $10 banknote.
Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow , Nova Scotia , by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre .
Sep 14, 2021 · Viola Desmond ignited the Canadian civil rights movement after refusing to leave the whites-only section of a Nova Scotia theater in 1946. Nearly a decade before Rosa Parks, a Canadian small business owner named Viola Desmond fought against segregation – and ended up in jail for a single penny.
Dec 13, 2021 · Her courageous act laid bare the realities of racism in Canada. Desmond devoted the rest of her life to fighting racism and injustice. She was issued a posthumous pardon by the Nova Scotia government in 2010 and in 2016 became the first Canadian woman to be depicted on a Canadian banknote.
Viola Desmond didn't set out to be a civil rights leader. But in 1946 when she was removed from a theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia for sitting in a section reserved for whites, she fought back in court.
Viola Desmond is an important figure in Canadian Civil Rights Activism. Due to her actions in 1946, Nova Scotia, she sparked the Civil Rights Movement in Canada. Cape Breton University is creating a Chair for Social Justice in her name, and need your support to make it happen.
