Graham Reynolds - Viola Desmond: Her Life and Times

Viola Desmond

Her Life and Times

Graham Reynolds with Wanda Robson

Roseway Publishing
an imprint of Fernwood Publishing
Halifax & Winnipeg

Copyright 2018 Graham Reynolds and Wanda Robson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Editing: Lindsay Ruck

Text design: Brenda Conroy

Cover eesign: John van der Woude

Printed and bound in Canada

eBook: tikaebooks.com

Published by Roseway Publishing

an imprint of Fernwood Publishing

Oceanvista Lane, Black Point, Nova Scotia, b0j 1b0

and Broadway Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, r3g 0x3

www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/roseway

Fernwood Publishing Company Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of Nova Scotia, Arts Nova Scotia and the Province of Manitoba for our publishing program.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Reynolds, Graham, 1944-, author

Viola Desmond: her life and times / Graham Reynolds, Wanda Robson.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77363-123-3 (softcover).ISBN 978-1-77363-124-0 (EPUB).ISBN 978-1-77363-125-7 (Kindle)

1. Desmond, Viola, 1914-1965. 2. Black Canadian womenBiography. 3. Black Canadian businesspeopleBiography. 4. Civil rights workers, BlackNova ScotiaBiography. 5. BlacksCanadaHistory. 6. BlacksNova ScotiaHistory. 7. BlacksSegregationCanadaHistory. 8. SegregationCanadaHistory. 9. CanadaEthnic relationsHistory. I. Robson, Wanda, 1926-, author II. Title.

FC2346.26.D48R49 2018 971.6004960092 C2018-903705-9

C2018-904502-7

Contents

To Terri MacGregor and Joe Robson,
for being the wind beneath our wings

Preface

T he publication of Viola Desmond: Her Life and Times coincides with the release of the newly designed $10 bill featuring Viola Desmond as the first Canadian-born woman to be solely represented on our national currency. For some Canadians, this new $10 bill may be their first introduction to this historically important African-Canadian woman. Others know Viola Desmond as the Halifax Black businesswoman who defiantly refused to leave her seat in a white only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. For the vast majority of Canadians, little more is known about Violas life and her extraordinary achievement both as a woman of courage and pioneer Black businesswoman.

Viola Desmond was a remarkable woman. She lived during a time when racial discrimination touched nearly every aspect of the lives of Black Canadiansin education, housing and employment. Viola, however, overcame many of these colour barriers and pursued her dream of becoming a beautician. She established the first beauty salon for Black women in Halifax and later founded the Desmond School of Beauty Culture, the first of its kind for Black women in Canada. Viola also developed her own line of beauty products. She was, in many respects, a woman well ahead of her time and she personified an image of self-confidence, respectability and independence.

Violas strength of character was put to the test in November 1946, when she was refused a ticket to sit in the white only section of the Roseland Theatre. Like Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Viola realized the injustice confronting her and instead of conforming to the theatres policy of racial segregation, she took deliberate and defiant action, first by taking her seat and then by refusing to give it up. This proved to be a life-changing decision for her and it ultimately would have lasting historical significance.

Although Viola happened by chance to enter the Roseland Theatre on that fateful day, her action was, in many respects, a protest waiting to happen and the consequence of the time in which she lived and almost everything else that made her who she was. As readers will discover in the following pages, Violas character and moral grounding were shaped by her deep connection to the Black community in the North End of Halifax and her strong family ties, especially her relationship with her mother, Gwendolyn, and her father, James.

Violas action at the Roseland Theatre challenged the existing pattern of conformity to the practice of racial segregation and eventually helped forge a new consensus of racial equality and a culture of rights in Canada. In his book, Human Rights in Canada : A History, Dominique Clement has observed that human rights are not solely abstractions of law, but they are products of history and social dialogue. The fact that Viola Desmonds story has now re-emerged into the Canadian public consciousness in the second decade of the 21st century, over sixty years after the Roseland Theatre incident, is testimony to this process and to the unique manner human rights and social justice have evolved in Canada.

Introduction

Viola Desmond

Her Life and Times

T he study of history is a boundless adventure that can lead one along many unexplored and even unimagined paths. I grew up in California during the 1960s and my initial historical interests were inspired by the civil rights movement and other events in the United States. When I began my academic career in Canada as an historian, over three decades ago, I could not have foreseen that, many years later, I would be exploring the life and times of an African-Nova Scotian beautician by the name of Viola Desmond. My personal interest in this iconic figure in Canadas history began almost two decades ago when Violas youngest sister, Wanda Robson, became a student in a course I was teaching on the history of race relations at Cape Breton University. I did not discover Wandas family connection until several weeks into the course when I began a discussion of the now famous incident that occurred in 1946 when Viola refused to give up her seat in the white only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. When I shared a picture of Viola with the class, Wanda raised her hand and said: Thats my sister! This eureka moment proved to be life-changing for both of us. It created a close student-mentor bond that, over the years, has developed into a lasting collaboration and friendship. Because of my continuing interest in Viola Desmonds story, I have discovered that this relationship has substantially reversed and Wanda has now, to a very large extent, become my inspiration and mentor.

Education for Wanda was part of a personal journey of self-discovery and a fulfillment of a lifelong dream. She had briefly attended university after completing high school over half a century before, but discontinued her education to work and raise a family. After taking my course in 2000, Wanda continued with her university education and in 2004, at the age of seventy-seven, she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Cape Breton University. Following her graduation, Wanda began a campaign to educate youth and raise public awareness about her sister and the struggle for equal rights in Canada. In addition to being a frequent guest in several of my courses, she gave numerous media interviews and presentations to schools throughout the province. As a result of Wandas efforts to raise public awareness, the government of Nova Scotia granted Viola Desmond a posthumous free pardon in 2010. In a remarkably short period of time, Viola Desmond has risen from historical obscurity to a national civil rights icon and, today she has the unique distinction of being the first woman, besides the Queen, to be exclusively featured on our national currency.