21 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.

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 for it to be fixed.

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 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, despite there having been no law specifically enforcing segregation in theatres.

Viola Desmond has been widely commemorated across Canada in recognition of her role in the civil rights movement and her contributions to the advancement of racial equality.

Viola Desmond's younger sister, Wanda Robson, and Dr Graham Reynolds, a professor of Cape Breton University, worked with Cabinet to ensure that Viola Desmond's name was cleared; there was a public acknowledgement of the injustice and the Crown-in-Council reaffirmed its commitment to human rights.