Viola (Davis) Desmond
November 8, 1946
On this date, Viola Desmond, a successful beautician and businesswoman, was traveling
from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Sydney to deliver orders of her beauty products. Her car
developed a mechanical problem near New Glasgow and the garage mechanic advised
her he would have to order a part and the car would be repaired the next morning. She
decided to catch a movie at the Roseland Theatre
Viola is black, and a segregated theatre doesn’t allow blacks to sit down stairs, only in the
balcony. She purchased a ticket, was given a balcony ticket and not realizing the theatre
was segregated sat in the lower section. The usher told Viola that she had an upstairs
ticket and was asked to move upstairs. Viola went to the ticket office and asked for a
down stairs ticket, she was told “We don’t sell downstairs tickets to you people”. Viola
returned to her seat. In spite of maintaining that she had offered to purchase the correct
ticket and was doing no wrong, she was eventually physically and forcefully removed by
the theatre manager and a policeman. (Viola stood 4ft. 11in. tall and weighed less than
100 pounds). She was arrested, and after spending the night in jail was taken before a
judge in the morning. (9 November)
Viola was convicted of defrauding the government of 1 cent. This was the difference in
the Provincial Amusement tax of 2¢ on the upstairs tickets and 3¢ for lower floor. Viola
was fined 20 dollars and 6 dollars court cost or 30 days in jail. She paid the $26.00 and
returned back home to Halifax. There was no mention made of race or the segregation
of the theatre during her trial.
Viola’s injuries were examined by her family doctor, Dr. Waddell. She was advised by her
father that she should appeal her conviction. The recently formed Nova Scotia Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (N.S.A.A.C.P.) took up her case and a lawyer
was hired. The appeal was denied by Supreme Court Justice M.B. Archibald and was
then put before the full bench of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. The full court upheld
Justice Archibald’s decision. The denial was due to the appeal process used and a late
filing of the same. Again no mention was made during the appeal trials that the case was
about racism. However, one of the justices, Justice W. L. Hall, did comment:
“One wonders if the manager of the theatre who laid the complaint was
so zealous because of a bona fide belief that an attempt to defraud the
Province of Nova Scotia of the sum of one cent, or was it a surreptitious
endeavor to enforce a Jim Crow rule by misuse of a public statute”.
Her lawyer, F. W. Bissett did not bill for his work.
Black Canadian Curriculum – ETFO – 2014