Home › Canadian › Viola Desmond July 6, 1914 185 views ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Thanks for rating! Viola wanted black women to have access to beauty salons and beauty products that were only available to white people at that time. Viola Desmond born Viola Irene Davis, was a Canadian Business owner and beautician. Canada had no formal segregation laws, but individual provinces such as Nova Scotia enacted them. Viola Desmond's trailblazing act of defiance was overlooked for decades by most Canadians. Eva was born on July 25 1914. North-end on 6 July 1914 to James Davis and Gwendolyn Johnson Davis. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/viola-desmond-40917.php, Celebrities Who Look Beautiful Even Without Makeup, The Top 25 Wrestling Announcers Of All Time, Famous Role Models You Would Like To Meet, Celebrities Who Are Not In The Limelight Anymore. She went on to start her own line of beauty products that catered particularly to the needs of the black community. Explore {{searchView.params.phrase}} by colour family {{familyColorButtonText(colorFamily.name)}} William "Bill" Morneau, Canada's finance minister, right, and Wanda Robson, sister of Viola Desmond, smile on stage during an event in Gatineau,... StWanda … Here's all you need to know about her. However, she gained the support of the church and decided to fight her case. 64 years later, in April 2010, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia invoked the ‘Royal Prerogative’ to posthumously pardon Viola Desmond, granting her full remedy and accepting that the conviction was an error. She belonged to a large family with 10 children. Her parents were highly regarded and active among the black community in her hometown. She was ordered by the manager to go to the balcony. She was neither informed about her legal right to a lawyer nor granted bail. She and her fourteen siblings grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the children of Gwendolin and James Davis. Since people of African descent were not allowed to join beautician training in Viola’s hometown, she moved to Montréal, Atlantic City, to start training as a beautician at the ‘Field Beauty Culture School’ and finally completed her training from one of Madam CJ Walker’s beauty schools in New York. Many Blacks in Halifax and across Nova Scotia rallied to her side. Viola Desmond Biography, Wiki, Age, Parents, Siblings, Cause of Death, Family, Bill,... 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Desmond was born Viola Irene Davis on July 6, 1914, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Complete Viola Desmond 2017 Biography. She was asked to continue her fight for the cause, but she preferred to concentrate on her beauty school and business. Viola Desmond was a Canadian citizen of mixed race, who championed the cause of equal rights for people with dark skin, in early 20th century. After graduating from high school, Desmond worked as a teacher in Black schools. When Desmond refused, the manager called the police. She came into prominence as an activist when she refused to vacate a seat in a theater that was reserved for white people. In the coming years, Viola opened The Desmond School of Beauty Culture – providing black women with a school option on Canada’s east coast. When she was growing up, Viola noticed that there was a lack of professional hair and skin care products that were available to black women, and aspired to become a beautician to help address the need. Eventually, they did but were defeated when the Nova Scotia Supreme Court dismissed the application for judicial review in 1947. She also launched her own beauty products and became an entrepreneur in her own right. Viola Desmond was brought up in a large family with 10 siblings. Although some family members were scared, Viola Desmond decided to clear her name. Viola Desmond has become one of the most iconic figures in the Canadian civil rights movement, and has been honoured in a Google Doodle. 128 matching entries found. Not anymore. Many of those familiar with Desmond’s action compare her to famed American civil-rights activist Rosa Parks and her 1955 refusal to vacate a bus seat so that a white passenger could sit down in Montgomery, Alabama (CBC 2006) but Martin and Desmond’s family emphasize the Canadian and Nova Scotian context for her example of ‘direct action’. She had to spend a night in a prison cell and injured her hip in the process. Viola Desmond Family, Childhood, Life Achievements, Facts, Wiki and Bio of 2017. In 2010, the government of Nova Scotia formally apologized to Viola Desmond's remaining family. 1700 Rue Viola-Desmond, #214, Montréal (LaSalle), Quebec H8N0C8 Viola Desmond Family: Canadian Heroine Likely Got Her Activism From Her Parents On Thursday, the Bank of Canada announced Viola Desmond … The Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NSAACP) offered to pay her legal fees. Each year, as many as 15 black women graduated from her school and started their own ventures that provided further job opportunities to the black community. She later married Jack Desmond. Though she lost her case, her determination galvanized the black community in Nova Scotia and encouraged them to fight for their rights. Viola Desmond is often compared to Rosa Parks, who had deliberately occupied a bus seat that was reserved for white people and had given rise to the ‘Civil Rights Movement’ in the US. Desmond was convicted and fined twenty dollars and court costs. Her husband was black and worked as a barber. Viola Desmond - Viola Desmond - Trial: In the morning, Desmond was taken to court and charged with attempting to defraud the provincial government based on her alleged refusal to pay a one-cent amusement tax (i.e., the difference in tax between upstairs and downstairs ticket prices). When Viola graduated from high school she wanted to attend a beautician school in Halifax. Viola Desmond was born on July 6, 1914 in Nova Scotia. Starting in 2018, Viola Desmond is going to be the first Canadian woman to be featured on a regularly circulating Canadian ten-dollar bill, Sorry, you have Javascript Disabled! 1924 (?) Showing search results for "Viola Desmond" sorted by relevance. In November 1946, she refused to vacate a seat reserved for the whites in a movie theater in New Glasgow. Her mother was the daughter of a white minister and his wife. For her whole childhood, she had wanted to become a professional hair and skin care for the blacks. Being born in 1914 meant that Viola survived the Halifax explosion of 1917. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. On January 28, 2019, a Nova Scotia school teacher was awarded the Governor General's History Award for her students' proposal to build a statue of Desmond in Cornwallis Park. During that disaster she was blown from her high chair. She was born in Nova Scotia, Canada on July 6, 1914. ‘Cape Breton University’ named a ‘Chair in Social Justice’ and established a scholarship campaign in Viola’s honor. Viola Desmond Parents She was the daughter of James Albert and Gwendolin Irene Davis. Viola had 6 siblings: Darcy Clark, Patricia Holmberg (born Clark) and 4 other siblings. The first ‘Nova Scotia Heritage Day,’ celebrated in February 2015, was dedicated to her. Since she was sold a cheaper ticket for the area reserved for the blacks, she was charged with tax evasion of one cent, which was the difference in the cost of tickets for the whites and the blacks. Although segregation based on color was enforced by law in the US, there was no such law in Canada at that time. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. The next morning she was brought before the local Magistrate. Viola was quite the entrepreneur, and launched a line of beauty products Vi’s Beauty Products. Initially members of the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NSAACP) feared a racist backlash debated whether to assist her. In December 2016, she became the first non-royal Canadian woman to be featured on a Canadian $10 note. See instructions. She graduated and came back with her husband Jack Desmond to Halifax to build a beauty salon. Although she was charged with tax evasion, since she was sold a ticket for a cheaper seat reserved for black people, she gave rise to a movement of black people who fought for equal rights. Her mother, Gwendolin Irene (Johnson) Davis was the daughter of a white minister and his wife. Civil rights pioneer, Viola Desmond, was a Black-Canadian businesswoman who was jailed and fined in 1946 for refusing to give up her seat in the whytes-only section of a Canadian movie theatre. Those purchasing a downstairs ticket paid a tax of three cents while patrons in the balcony paid a tax of two cents. The Google Doodle for July 6, 2018 celebrates the Canadian civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond on what would have been the Nova Scotian’s 104th birthday. She also opened her own school for beautician training, known as the ‘Desmond School of Beauty Culture.’ This was done to prevent any more discrimination against black people in her field. She went to New York's Lalia College for beauty business. The story of Viola Desmond, an entrepreneur who challenged segregation in Nova Scotia in the 1940s. In July 2016, a ferry in Halifax harbor was named after her. She was one of 15 children and her parents, James and Gwendolin Davis, … Wanda Robson, who is Viola Desmond's youngest sister, recalls the many accounts she's heard over her 90 years from her older siblings. Her body was put to rest at the ‘Camp Hill Cemetery’ in Halifax, Nova Scotia. However, the actual reason for her arrest was not the difference in cost, but the fact that she had refused to vacate a seat reserved for the whites. Explore Viola Desmond's biography, personal life, family and cause of death. From a young age, Viola dreamed of having her own business. Dearcy was born in Austria. Desmond's image now graces the new $10 Canadian bill. It was on one of those trips that she faced racial discrimination in a theater in New Glasgow and went to court after being charged with tax evasion. Viola Desmond - Business Women, Family and Life. Viola is the first Canadian woman to appear on a bank note. Looks like something went wrong. Viola Davis Desmond was a Halifax businesswoman and civil rights activist who was arrested for challenging racial segregation in a theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, in 1946. Following this, she moved to Montréal and ultimately settled in New York, US. To see this page as it is meant to appear, please enable your Javascript! Her proposal was to include the existing Edward Cornwallis statue among three other statues of Acadian Noël Doiron, Black Nova Scotian Viola Desmond and Mi'kmaw Chief John Denny Jr. Viola Desmond, Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian who in 1946 defied the segregation policy of a movie theater in Nova Scotia, taking a seat in the whites-only section. She grew up middle class, and her parents, James Albert and Gwendolin Irene Davis, were highly involved in Halifax’s Black community. It was also common practice for the New Glasgow theatre to assign tickets based on race with an amusement tax determined by seat location. She also became the first colored woman to have been featured in a ‘Historica Canada Heritage Minute’ short film that year. Her marriage ended soon after. When she obtained her diplomas she opened a salon and eventually a beauty school. Viola Desmond Biography Stories. She had a sister named Wanda Robson, who later wrote a book about activism in the family, titled ‘Sister to Courage,’ highlighting the life of Viola. However, she wanted to address the needs of the black community by introducing beauty products for people with dark skin. The story of her courageous refusal to accept an act of racial discrimination provided inspiration to a later generation of Blacks in Nova Scotia and in the rest of Canada. By 1946, she was making her dreams come true. She was, according to prosecutors, one cent short. She was the subject of the children’s book ‘Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged’ by Jody Nyasha Warner and a song written by Canadian social activist and singer Faith Nolan. http://cbncompass.ca/news/regional/viola-desmond-selected-as-first-canadian-woman-to-be-on-10-bank-note-1246/, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/viola-desmond-wanda-robson-black-history-month-1.3430629, http://www.historyandwomen.com/2010/04/viola-desmond-true-heroine.html. I see in Desmond’s story in the stories of my own family and community members in … She was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and died on February 7, 1965 in New York, New York, United States aged 50. She lived in a time when black women were expected to be servants in houses, and black men were expected to be servants on trains. Viola grew up in a middle-class mixed-race family, one of ten children of James Albert and Gwendolin Irene DavisOne. Soon, she decided to close her business and move to Montréal to join a business college. On Thursday, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter offered the apology to the family of the late Viola Desmond and to all black Nova Scotians for Desmond's unjust arrest back in 1946. She belonged to a large family with 10 children. Biography . He had been brought up in Glasgow and was accustomed to be treated badly by white-skinned people. When justice did prevail, it was 64 years later. Childhood & Early Life She was born Viola Irene Davis, on July 6, 1914, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to James Albert Davis and Gwendolin Irene Davis. Viola Desmond, in full Viola Irene Desmond, was a successful black businesswoman.Desmond was jailed, convicted, and fined for defiantly refusing to leave a whites-only seat of a movie theatre in 1946. She approached the ‘Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People’ (NSAACP) and hired a lawyer to fight a case of racial discrimination. Though Canada had no laws that segregated the black people from the white, it was a norm for the blacks to not mix with the whites. Viola Desmond was born thin Nova Scotia July 6, 1914, to James and Gwendolin Davis, which was her maiden name. Her father, who worked as a stevedore before opening a barbershop, was black, while her mother was white. She was born as one of 15 children by James Desmond and Gwendolen Davis. The first Black-owned newspaper kept the story alive. Viola Desmond is remembered as a citizen who stood for a cause. When Viola graduated from high school, she worked as a teacher in two racially-segregated schools for … She died on February 7, 1965 in New York, New York, United States. She grew up with 10 siblings! Viola Desmond had been denied the protection that one expects from the Canadian justice system. The lawyer who fought her case donated his fees to the ‘NSAACP,’ which put the money to good use. Browse 40 viola desmond stock photos and images available or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Viola Desmond - Viola Desmond - Trial: In the morning, Desmond was taken to court and charged with attempting to defraud the provincial government based on her alleged refusal to pay a one-cent amusement tax (i.e., the difference in tax between upstairs and downstairs ticket prices). Although racial mixing was not uncommon in early 20th-centu… However, the government insisted that it was a case of tax evasion. She was from a middle-class mixed-race family; her mother was white and her father black. Ironically Desmond was charged with tax evasion for her failure to pay the proper tax for a downstairs ticket. Viola Irene (Davis) Desmond was born 6 Jul 1914 in Halifax, Halifax Co., Nova Scotia, Canada. Her father, who worked as a stevedore before opening a barbershop, was black, while her mother was white. She was 50 years old when she died of gastrointestinal hemorrhage in February 1965. Her refusal to accept an act of racial discrimination provided inspirational to a later generation of Black persons in Canada. She was born Viola Irene Davis, on July 6, 1914, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to James Albert Davis and Gwendolin Irene Davis. She was born in Halifax’s . She is featured on the $10 bill. Civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond was selected from the more than 26,000 submissions that rolled in after the Bank of Canada ... thank you,” said Robson. The Story of Viola Desmond Viola Desmond. After getting married, she joined her husband’s barbershop to make it a combined barbershop and hairdressing salon. However, because she was of African descent she wasn’t allowed to attend the school. She married Jack Desmond, who owned a barbershop on Gottingen Street. Viola Desmond was a Canadian citizen of mixed race, who championed the cause of equal rights for people with dark skin, in early 20th century Viola Desmond - Business Women, Family, Life - Viola Desmond Biography However, there was an understanding among both the whites and the blacks to keep to themselves in public places. She was the daughter of James Albert and Gwendolin Irene Davis. The four statutes would be positioned as if in a conversation with each other, discussing their accomplishments and struggles. Her father, James Albert Davis, was a barber. Civil rights pioneer, Viola Desmond, was a Black-Canadian businesswoman who was jailed and fined in 1946 for refusing to give up her seat in the whytes-only section of a Canadian movie theatre. READ MORE: Sister of civil rights icon Viola Desmond cherishes her legacy. While waiting for her car to be repaired, she took in a movie at Roseland Theatre, which was segregated with a main floor for white patrons and a balcony for black patrons. When she told her husband about the incident, he advised her to forget about it. The … siblings: Alan Davis, Constance Scott, Emily Clyke, Eugenie Parris, Gordon Davis, Helen Fline, John Davis, Olive Scott, Wanda Robson, See the events in life of Viola Desmond in Chronological Order. Viola Desmond's family was made up of her parents and 10 siblings. However, Viola was a strong supporter of the black movement to demand equal rights. 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