Viola Desmond
Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Black Nova Scotian business woman who challenged racial segregation at a film theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1946. She refused to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre and was unjustly convicted of a minor tax violation used to enforce segregation. Desmond's case was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start resistance to segregation in Nova Scotia. Desmond acted nine years before the famed incident by civil-rights activist Rosa Parks, with whom Desmond is often compared. Desmond was granted a posthumous pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. The government of Nova Scotia also apologized for convicting her for tax evasion, when, in fact, she was resisting a "whites only" discrimination policy.
Personal facts
| Birth date | July 06, 1914 |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Viola Davis |
| Birth place | |
| Date of death | February 07, 1965 |