Viola Desmond
Canadian civil rights activist
Born on: July 6, 1914Died on: February 7, 1965
Aged: 50 years 216 days (607 months)
Gender: Female
Nationality: Canadians
Birth Sign: Cancer
Viola Irene Desmond was a Canadian civil and women's 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.
For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive.
Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.
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