30 Facts About Viola Desmond

Viola Irene Desmond was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent.

Viola 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.

In 2010, Viola Desmond was granted a posthumous free pardon, the first to be granted in Canada.

In 2016, the Bank of Canada inaccurately announced that Viola Desmond would be the first Canadian woman to be featured on the front of a Canadian banknote, but that honour went to Agnes Macphail, who appeared along with three men on a small print run commemorative note issued in 2017 to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Viola Desmond was born on July 6,1914, one of ten children of James Albert and Gwendolin Irene Davis.

Viola Desmond was raised by her father and mother in Halifax.

Viola Desmond's father worked as a stevedore for a number of years before he became a barber.

Viola Desmond's clients included Portia White and Gwen Jenkins, later the first black nurse in Nova Scotia.

Viola Desmond 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.

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.

Viola Desmond was told that she would have to wait a day before the parts to fix it became available.

Viola Desmond was arrested and spent 12 hours in jail, and had to pay a $26 fine for tax evasion.

Viola Desmond was convicted of depriving the government of one cent in tax.

Viola Desmond was kept in jail overnight and was never informed about her right to legal advice, a lawyer, or bail.

The statute used to convict Viola Desmond contained no explicitly racist or discriminatory language.

Viola Desmond's lawyer tried to appeal the decision on the basis of her being wrongfully accused of tax evasion, not on the basis of racial discrimination.

Viola Desmond closed her business and moved to Montreal where she could enroll in a business college.

Viola Desmond eventually settled in New York City, where she died from gastrointestinal bleeding on February 7,1965, at the age of 50.

Viola Desmond is buried at Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Viola Desmond is often compared to Rosa Parks, given they both challenged racism by refusing to vacate seats in "Whites Only" sections and contributed to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.

Viola Desmond's proposal was to include the existing Edward Cornwallis statue among three other statues of Acadian Noel Doiron, Black Nova Scotian Viola Desmond and Mi'kmaq Chief John Denny Jr.

In 2010, Mayann E Francis Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia unveiled a portrait of Desmond which is on permanent display in the Ballroom at Government House.

In 2012, Viola Desmond was portrayed on a commemorative stamp issued by Canada Post.

On December 8,2016, Viola Desmond was chosen as the first Canadian-born woman; the second woman, after Queen Elizabeth II; and the first black person and non-royal to appear on her own on a Canadian banknote.

Viola Desmond was named a National Historic Person on January 12,2018.

Desmond was the subject of a children's book Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner.

Viola Desmond became the first historical woman of colour to feature in a Heritage Minute.

Google's July 6,2018 Doodle, created by Google artist Sophie Diao, celebrates the life and legacy of Viola Desmond, and was distributed across Canada.

Viola Desmond's younger sister Wanda Robson and Graham Reynolds, a professor of Cape Breton University, worked with the Government of Nova Scotia to ensure that Viola Desmond's name was cleared, there was a public acknowledgement of the injustice and Nova Scotia reaffirmed its commitment to Human Rights.