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SPEAKER_03: All I wanted was to see a movie.
SPEAKER_04: One down, please. I can't sell downstairs tickets to you people.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Womanica. Today's local legend is an icon for human rights in Canada. Her defiant refusal to leave a whites-only area of a movie theater led to the first known legal challenge of racial segregation brought by a Black woman in Canada. Let's talk about Viola Desmond. Viola Irene Davis was born on July 6th, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was raised in a family with 10 siblings and parents who were prominent in the Halifax community. Her father, James Albert Davis, was well known as a local barber. Her mother, Gwendolyn Irene Johnson, was well known for a different reason. Gwendolyn was the daughter of a local white pastor and a Black mother. Though Halifax was an integrated community, mixed-race marriages were still rare at the time. Inspired by her parents' success in the community, Viola aspired to be a successful businesswoman. After a short stint spent teaching, Viola knew her aspirations lay elsewhere. She enrolled in the Field Beauty Culture School in Montreal, one of the only beauty schools in Canada that accepted Black applicants. She continued her education in the U.S. before opening up her own salon. By Studio of Beauty Culture, catered to the Black community of Halifax. Viola had tapped into a cultural movement. At the start of the 20th century, new beauty trends required special products and maintenance. Salons offered rare opportunities for female entrepreneurs. This movement was particularly impactful for Black women, for whom opportunities to own a business were incredibly scarce. These salons became a point of connection within communities and elevated the owners to positions of authority and status. Viola quickly found success and expanded her influence. She opened up her own school, the Desmond School of Beauty Culture, which focused on hiring and training young Black women in her community. She also started a line of products that were sold in salons across the province. But Viola's life took a dramatic turn. On November 8th, 1946, Viola's car broke down in New Glasgow when she was en route to a business meeting in Sydney, Nova Scotia. A nearby mechanic told Viola the repairs would take several hours. So she checked into a hotel room and moosied to a nearby movie theater to pass the time. When she arrived at the Roseland Theater, Viola purchased a ticket for a seat on the main floor of the upcoming film. Instead, the cashier handed Viola a ticket for the balcony. In 1946 Canada, racism wasn't institutionalized in the same way it was in the United States. There were more unspoken and insidious rules of how Black and white people were supposed to interact.
SPEAKER_00: Unbeknownst to Viola, the Roseland Theater did not permit Black people to sit on the main floor of the theater. When she tried to enter the theater, the ticket taker signaled that she needed to go up to the balcony level, assuming there'd been a mistake. Viola returned to the cashier. He responded, I'm sorry, but I'm not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people. Viola wasn't having it. She marched right back into the theater and took a seat on the main floor. The situation escalated. The manager of the theater was called over and demanded Viola leave her seat, arguing that the theater maintained the right to refuse admission to any objectionable person. Viola explained that she hadn't been refused admission. She'd been sold a ticket, just not the ticket she'd requested. She offered to pay the difference in price for a main floor ticket. Eventually, a police officer dragged Viola out of the theater, injuring her knee and hip in the process. Viola was taken to the local jail where she was held overnight. Of her time in jail, Viola recalled being shocked and frightened, sitting bolt upright all through the night. The following morning, Viola was taken to court and charged with attempting to defraud the local government. It was alleged that she had refused to pay the one cent amusement tax for a main floor ticket. Viola had been more than happy to pay the difference in price between the two tickets. But this counterpoint was not heard by the court, as throughout Viola's trial, she was not provided a lawyer, nor informed that she was entitled to one. The court found her guilty of the crime and fined her $26. At no point in the trial was race mentioned, yet it remained evident that the real violation was Viola's refusal to adhere to the unspoken rule that black moviegoers were relegated to the balcony. It was common knowledge in the black community around New Glasgow that the Roseland Theater was segregated. Viola's husband, Jack Desmond, grew up in New Glasgow and was not at all surprised when he learned about her treatment. His inclination was to let the issue go and carry on with their lives. But Viola had other ideas. After having her injuries examined by her doctor, Viola became determined to reverse the charges. Along with the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Viola raised money to fight her conviction. The Clarion, a black-owned and operated newspaper, closely covered the details of Viola's case and brought attention to the Roseland Theater's discriminatory practices. The legal nature of race discrimination was unsettled in Canada at the time, but the case never made it to trial. Due to legal technicalities, the suit bounced between various Nova Scotia courts before it was finally ruled that the original conviction could not be overturned. Though Viola didn't win her case, her quest for equality under the law and her resistance to the status quo mobilized her community. The black population in Nova Scotia continued to organize. In 1954, eight years after Viola's initial incident, segregation was deemed illegal in Nova Scotia. This fight for equality came with personal costs. Under the pressure of the court battles and widespread attention, Viola's marriage deteriorated. She eventually abandoned her business and left Halifax altogether, moving first to Montreal before settling in New York City. As a result of poor health, Viola died in New York on February 7th, 1965. Posthumously, in April of 2010, Viola was granted a pardon by the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. The pardon, accompanied by a formal apology from the province, recognized Viola's conviction as a miscarriage of justice. That same year, the Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice was established at the Cape Breton University. Two years later, the Canadian Post issued a postage stamp with her image on it. And in 2018, Viola was selected to appear on Canada's $10 banknote, making Viola the first black person and first non-royal to appear alone on the country's currency.
SPEAKER_01: We are here today to unveil Canada's new $10 banknote, which features the iconic Nova Scotia native, Viola Desmond.
SPEAKER_00: Wooo! Wooo! Wooo! Wooo! Wooo! While much of the recognition of Viola's fight and the indignity she suffered came nearly 50 years after her death, there's no doubt that her pursuit of equality was foundational in the Canadian civil rights movement. All month, we're talking about local legends. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Wamanica Weekly. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Wamanica. You can also find me on Twitter at Jenny M. Kaplan. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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