November 8, 1946, 80 years ago: Canada develops its own Rosa Parks -- 9 years before America had theirs.
Viola Irene Davis was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her father was a barber, and she wanted to go into the hair care profession, too. But the only beauty school in town wouldn't admit her, because she was black. So she trained where she could: Montreal, Atlantic City, and New York. She married Jack Desmond, and they opened a combination barbershop/beauty salon. She also opened her own beauty school, so no other black woman would have to be denied like she was.
On November 8, 1946, she drove across Nova Scotia to Sydney, to sell her beauty products, but her car broke down in New Glasgow. The good news was, the mechanic she went to was willing to fix a black person's car. The bad news was, it would take a day.
So she went to see a movie. The Roseland Theatre was showing The Dark Mirror, and sold her a ticket to the balcony section, which matched America's treatment of black people in segregated movie theaters. But her eyesight was poor, so she asked for a floor seat. The ticket seller said, "I'm not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people." Which, legally, was a lie. She took her ticket for the balcony, and sat in the floor section.
And usher found her, and told her to move. She refused. She offered to pay the additional 10 cents for a floor seat. They responded to this by calling the police, who picked her up, injuring her hip. With that injury, she was in jail for the next 12 hours. She was never informed about her right to legal advice, a lawyer, or bail.
The charge was tax evasion. She wasn't evading anything: She had offered to pay the extra 10 cents. One cent of that was slated for the Province of Nova Scotia, and she was convicted of depriving the government of a single cent. Instead of paying an extra 10 cents, she was fined $26.
Her husband wanted her to let it go, and pay the fine. But her church stood by her, and hired a lawyer. His name was Frederick Bissett, and he made a critical mistake: He opted for a judicial review, rather than appeal the original conviction. 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. The prosecutors stood by the theater's story, that the issue wasn't race, it was taxes. Which was a lie, because she had offered to pay the money. The fine stood.
To make matters worse, her husband soon left her. She closed her business, went to college in Montreal, moved to New York, and died on February 7, 1965, only 50 years old. She had surely heard the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but there is no record of Mrs. Parks and Mrs. Desmond ever having met.
The legend of Viola Desmond grew after her death. In 2010, the Nova Scotia Provincial government granted her a pardon and an apology. They were posthumous, of course: She would have been 94 years old. Beginning in 2018, her face adorned the Canadian $10 bill, replacing that of the country's 1st Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.
As of November 8, 2022, there has never been a film made about her, even though a prominent black American film actress shares her birth name of Viola Davis.
