What is Viola Desmond best known for?

civil rights activist
Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre.

What did Viola Desmond achieve?

Desmond quickly found success. She opened a beauty school, the Desmond School of Beauty Culture, and expanded her business across the province. (Desmond created a line of beauty products, which were sold at venues owned by graduates of her beauty school.)

Why is Viola Desmond a hero?

The first Canadian woman to grace the country’s banknote is a black civil rights hero. Desmond became one of the faces of Canada’s civil rights movement in 1946, after her arrest and conviction for sitting in the white section of a segregated movie theater in New Glasgow.

What is an interesting fact about Viola Desmond?

A CANADIAN CIVIL RIGHT LEGACY In 2018, she became the first Canadian woman to appear on a regularly circulating Canadian $10 bill. Desmond was portrayed on a Canadian postage stamp. Desmond was featured in a Heritage Minute and there is even a ferryboat in Halifax, Nova Scotia named in her honour.

Who inspired Viola Desmond?

Viola Desmond standing inside her beauty salon, Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture (courtesy Wanda and Joe Robson Collection, Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University/16-87-30227). Motivated by her parents’ example of hard work and community involvement, Desmond aspired to success as an independent businesswoman.

What was Viola Desmond’s first job?

Viola Desmond was born in 1914, the daughter of a middle-class mixed-race family in Halifax. When Desmond graduated from high school she worked as a teacher in Black schools, one of very few employment avenues open to her.

How did Viola Desmond became famous?

Viola Desmond quickly found success. She opened a beauty school, the Desmond School of Beauty Culture, to train women and expanded her business across the province. (Desmond created a line of beauty products, which were sold at venues owned by graduates of her beauty school.)

When was the Desmond School of Beauty Culture opened?

1930
For Viola Desmond, those rejections signaled an even more urgent need than pursuing her personal goals. She went to beauty schools in Montreal, Atlantic City and New York. She then returned to Halifax to open her very own business, a beauty school, in 1930.

Is Viola Desmond still alive?

Deceased (1914–1965)
Viola Desmond/Living or Deceased

How old was Viola Desmond when she was imprisoned?

32-year-old
She never made it to Sydney. Instead, police jailed the 32-year-old prominent businesswoman, who operated her own hair salon.

Did Viola Desmond go to school?

Bloomfield High School
Viola Desmond/Education

When did Viola Desmond open her salon?

A Woman Who Meant Business Nova Scotia beauty schools wouldn’t accept Black women, so Viola trained in Montréal and the United States, opening Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax in 1937.

Who is Mayann Francis?

Mayann Elizabeth Francis, public servant, human rights specialist, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia (b at Sydney, NS). Francis, one of 7 children of an archpriest of the African Orthodox Church, grew up in Whitney Pier, a multicultural and working-class district of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Who is Thelma Francis?

Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and raised in Whitney Pier, she is the daughter of Archpriest George A. Francis and Thelma D. Francis, and is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University and completed graduate studies at New York University . She was the director and CEO of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission from 1999-2006.

Who is Mary Francis Francis?

Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and raised in Whitney Pier, she is the daughter of Archpriest George A. Francis and Thelma D. Francis, and is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University and completed graduate studies at New York University.