Today, the Viola Desmond $10 bank notes officially enter circulation!!
Viola Desmond was born and raised in Halifax and although she was educated as a teacher, she was a well-known, successful entrepreneur. In 1946 Desmond traveled to New Glasgow on business and experienced car trouble. While she waited, she purchased a ticket to a movie and took a seat on the main floor to watch. Desmond was unaware at first that this theatre in New Glasgow only allowed African Canadians up on the balcony. They were not permitted on the main floor.
Viola refused to sit on the balcony and was dragged out of the theatre- injuring her hip- and was charged. No one read her, her rights- and she spent the night in jail.
Desmond was fined and charged with defrauding the Government of Nova Scotia due to the difference in tax between the main floor and balcony seating- one cent.
Desmond appealed the charges unsuccessfully.
Her lawyer did not use racial discrimination as a legal offence. I think this quote from Justice William Lorimer Hall says it all, “One wonders if the manager of the theatre who laid the complaint was so zealous because of a bona fide belief that there had been an attempt to defraud the province of Nova Scotia of the sum of one cent, or was it a surreptitious endeavour to enforce a Jim Crow rule by misuse of a public state.”
Viola Desmond helped make Canadians aware of the segregation issues in our country. Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis posthumously pardoned Viola Desmond in 2010.
*This photo of the Viola Desmond $10 bank note looks over Parliament in Ottawa.
