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.
Viola Desmond was born on July 6, 1914, one of ten children of James Albert and Gwendolin Irene (née Johnson) Davis.
Viola was raised by her father and mother in Halifax.
Viola's father worked as a stevedore for a number of years before he became a barber.
Growing up, Desmond noted the absence of professional hair and skin-care products for black women and set her sights on addressing this need.
Being of African descent, she was not allowed to train 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.
Upon finishing her training, Desmond returned to Halifax to start her own hair salon called Vi's Studio of Beauty Culture.
Her clients included Portia White and Gwen Jenkins, later the first black nurse in Nova Scotia.
In addition to the salon, Desmond opened The Desmond School of Beauty Culture so that black women would not have to travel as far as they had to receive proper training.
Catering to women from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec, the school operated using a vertical integration framework.
Students were provided with the skills required to open their own businesses and provide jobs for other black women within their communities.
Each year as many as fifteen women graduated from the school, all of whom had been denied admission to whites-only training schools.
Desmond also started her own line of beauty products, Vi's Beauty Products, which she marketed and sold herself.
Viola Desmond joined her husband Jack Desmond in a combined barbershop and hairdressing salon on Gottingen Street.
1946
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.
For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive.
Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.
On November 8, 1946, while she was on a business trip to Sydney to sell her beauty products, Viola Desmond's car broke down in New Glasgow.
She was told that she would have to wait a day before the parts to fix it became available.
To pass the time while waiting, she went to see The Dark Mirror starring Olivia de Havilland at the Roseland Film Theatre.
There were no segregation laws for movie theatres in Nova Scotia, and the theatre had no sign telling its patrons about the policy, but main floor seats were reserved for white patrons, a discriminatory practice permitted in all Canadian provinces.
Desmond was sold a ticket to the balcony.
Unaware of the segregation and, being nearsighted, she went to sit in the floor section to be close to the screen.
When she was asked to move, she realized what was happening, and refused to move because she had a better view from the main floor.
When she requested to exchange her balcony ticket to the main floor for an additional cost, she was refused and forcefully removed from the theatre which caused an injury to her hip.
She was also arrested and spent 12 hours in jail, and had to pay a $26 fine for tax evasion.
The tax on the balcony price of 30 cents was two cents; the tax on the floor price of 40 cents was three cents.
She was convicted of depriving the government of one cent in tax.
Desmond was kept in jail overnight and was never informed about her right to legal advice, a lawyer, or bail.
Upon returning to Halifax, Desmond discussed the matter with her husband, and his advice was to let it go.
However, she then sought advice from the leaders of her church, the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, where the Minister William Pearly Oliver and his wife Pearline encouraged her to take action.
With their support, Desmond decided to fight the charge in court.
Following the decision to fight the charge, Carrie Best broke the story of Desmond in the first edition of The Clarion, the first black-owned and published Nova Scotia newspaper.
Best closely covered the story of Desmond on front page as she had herself previously confronted the racial segregation of the Roseland Theatre.
2010
In 2010, Desmond was granted a posthumous free pardon, the first to be granted in Canada.
A free pardon deems the person granted the pardon to have never committed the offence and cancels any consequence resulting from the conviction, such as fines, prohibitions or forfeitures.
However, it was not until 2021 that the government repaid the $26 (worth $368 CAD as of 2021) fine to her estate in the form of a $1,000 scholarship that adjusted the amount to reflect the time value of money.
The Crown-in-Right-of-Nova Scotia also apologized for prosecuting her for tax evasion and acknowledged she was rightfully resisting racial discrimination.
2018
In late 2018, Desmond became the first Canadian-born woman to appear alone on a Canadian bank note—a $10 bill—which was unveiled by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz during a ceremony at the Halifax Central Library on March 8, 2018.
Desmond was also named a National Historic Person in 2018.
