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. 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.
Building a business in Nova Scotia
Viola Desmond was born on July 6, 1914, one of ten children of James Albert Davis, a black Canadian stevedore and barber, and Gwendolin Irene Johnson, a white American whose family had moved from New Haven, Connecticut. She was raised by her father and mother in Halifax. In 1917, Viola, then three years old, was one of many to be injured in the Halifax Explosion, which she survived along with her entire family. 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.
Desmond’s 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.
A disputed theater seat
On November 8, 1946, Desmond was travelling to Sydney to market her beauty products when her car broke down in New Glasgow. While waiting for repairs, she went to see a showing of The Dark Mirror at the Roseland Film Theatre. Although Nova Scotian cinemas had no formal segregation laws, the Roseland reserved main‑floor seats for white patrons. Desmond was sold a ticket to the balcony. Unaware of the segregation, the nearsighted Desmond went to sit in the floor section, as it was close to the screen.
When 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, injuring her hip. Desmond was arrested and charged with a $26 fine for tax evasion. The balcony ticket cost 30¢ with a two‑cent tax; the floor ticket cost 40¢ with a three‑cent tax.
Desmond was convicted of depriving the government of one cent in tax. Desmond was jailed for twelve hours 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.
The case and its consequences
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 herself had previously confronted the racial segregation of the Roseland Theatre. With the help of her church and the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP), Desmond hired a lawyer, Frederick William Bissett, who represented her in the provincial offence trial and attempted, unsuccessfully, to file a lawsuit against the Roseland Theatre. After the court cases and encounter with the legal system of Nova Scotia, her marriage ended. Desmond closed her business and moved to Montreal where she could enroll in a business college.
Desmond eventually settled in New York City, where she died from gastrointestinal bleeding on February 7, 1965, at the age of 50. She is buried at Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On April 14, 2010, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Mayann Francis, on the advice of Premier Darrell Dexter, invoked the royal prerogative and granted Desmond a posthumous free pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. The free pardon, an extraordinary remedy granted under the royal prerogative of mercy only in the rarest of circumstances and the first one granted posthumously, differs from a simple pardon in that it is based on innocence and recognizes that a conviction was in error.