HIST 2800 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Buto, Absenteeism, Viola Desmond
Document Summary
Viola desmond protests segregation in novas scotia movie theatre (1946) and her subsequent pardon (2010) She was a businesswoman in halifax, running a barber/beauty salon with her husband. She sat in the segregated white only" seating in new glasgow and subsequently arrested. She sat in the downstairs area, to be told that she couldn"t sit there and had to sit upstairs. After realizing what was going on, she sat back down there, and had to be escorted out of the theatre by force. She sat on the bench, well dressed, refused to budge or talk to anybody. She was called the canada"s rosa parks" due to this causing so much publicity. She was charged with using the wrong ticket, and nothing else. She was issued an apology and a pardon years later as a response to it. The pardon acknowledges she was never guilty in the first place.
