Long Road to Justice: The Viola Desmond Story is a documentary film which premiered in 2011.
Viola Desmond (1914-1965) was a black businesswoman who lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
On 8 November 1946, when she was on a business trip, her car broke down in New Glasgow and she had to wait until the next day for the car to be repaired.
In order to pass the time, she decided to go to the Roseland Theatre and watch a movie. While she was inside the theatre, something happened which changed her life in a profound way:
She was told to leave her seat on the ground floor and go to the balcony. She refused. The auditorium was segregated. The ground floor was reserved for white people. Black people had to go upstairs and sit on the balcony at the rear end of the auditorium.
When she refused to move, the owner of the movie theatre and a police officer grabbed her and dragged her out of the building. The police officer brought her to the police station where she was arrested.
She spent the night in a cell. The next morning, she was brought to a courtroom and placed in front of a judge who said she was guilty of a crime.
She had to pay a fine (20 dollars) and pay compensation (six dollars) to the owner of the movie theatre.
She was shocked. She felt she was the victim. Why should she have to pay compensation to the man who had molested her?
Because of this event, because of the way she was treated, she became a civil rights activist. Her life would never be the same again.
This film explains how and why her name became a symbol of the struggle for civil rights in Canada.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Brian Murray
** Available on YouTube
** Run time: 44 minutes
Five persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (listed in alphabetical order):
** Constance Backhouse – professor of law, University of Ottawa
** Judge Clyde MacDonald – B. Sc. L., Q. C. (retired)
** Dr Graham Reynolds – professor emeritus of history, Cape Breton University
** Wanda Robson (1926-2022) – Viola’s younger sister
** Sergeant Craig Smith – RCMP, Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia – local historian
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the participants.
Archive footage includes several clips from an official ceremony held in 2010, during which three local politicians addressed the case:
** Darrell Dexter - Premier of Nova Scotia 2009-2013
** Mayann E. Francis (born 1946) – Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia 2006-2012
** Percy Paris – Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs 2009-2013
PART ONE
As stated above, Viola Desmond was a businesswoman who lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She owned a beauty salon, a school for beauticians, and she sold beauty products to clients in several provinces.
Her husband was a barber, who had a barber shop next to her salon. The couple had a home and a car. They were members of a small black middle class. They were doing well. This is why the episode in the New Glasgow movie theatre made such a big impact on her life.
When Viola was arrested and brought to the police station, there were three important things they did not tell her:
# 1. They did not tell her that she might be able to post bail and to be released on bail. She did not know. This is why she had to spend a night in a cell.
# 2. They did not tell her that she had the right to contact a lawyer.
# 3. They did not tell her that the trial could be delayed until she had found a lawyer who was ready to defend her. She did not know. This is why she was on her own when she was in the courtroom.
The judge said she was guilty of a crime. He sentenced her to pay a fine and to pay compensation. What was the crime? The answer is a bit complicated.
A ticket to the main floor cost 40 cents plus an amusement tax of 3 cents.
A ticket to the upstairs balcony cost 30 cents plus an amusement tax of 2 cents.
When Viola entered the movie theatre, she asked for a ticket to the ground floor. But the ticket seller refused to sell her a ticket to the ground floor. The ticket seller sold her a ticket to the balcony and told her to go upstairs and sit on the balcony. Viola ignored this instruction. She entered the main floor and sat down.
The usher came up to her and asked to see her ticket. When he saw her ticket, he told her to go upstairs. When she refused, the usher went to get the owner of the theatre. The owner of the theatre appeared with a police officer. They told her to move. When she refused, they grabbed her and dragged her out of the theatre.
What was the crime? According to the charge, she was sitting on the ground floor where the amusement tax was 3 cents, but she had a ticket to the balcony where the amusement tax was 2 cents.
This was the crime. They said she had not paid the tax in full. The difference was one cent. They claimed this was a case of tax evasion. She had allegedly tried to defraud the state. This was a case about money. The crime was about the non-payment of one cent!
Obviously, this was only a pretext. Obviously, this was only a poor excuse. Because they did not tell the truth. The truth was that the auditorium was segregated. The truth was that the main floor was reserved for white people, while black people had to go upstairs and sit on the balcony.
But the police officer, the owner of the theatre, and the judge did not want to say so. They carefully avoided the truth. The word “segregation” was never used. There was no talk about white people sitting on the ground floor and black people sitting on the balcony.
If this episode had taken place in a southern state of the US, the policy of segregation would have been announced with large posters:
** Entrance for white people = the ground floor
** Entrance for colored people = the upstairs balcony
Canada had segregation. But it was not obligatory. The law allowed owners of a business to practice racial segregation, if they wished to do so.
In Canada, the system of segregation was not in your face. It was more polite. It was not announced with large posters. It was almost invisible. But it was still there. You had to ask or you had to know where to go and where not to go.
Viola lived in Halifax. She did not know the New Glasgow theatre was segregated. But once she realized what was going on, she decided that she was not going to accept it. She refused to move. And she was made to suffer for her decision. Because the law supported the owner and his right to do what he wanted.
PART TWO
When the trial was over, Viola returned to Halifax where she told her husband what had happened. When she asked him what to do, he told her to let it go:
** Just accept this as a part of life.
** It is an experience.
** Try to forget it and move on.
But when she talked to members of her church, she received a different response. They said this was a terrible experience. They said she should not let it go. They said she had to do something about it. And they tried to help her getting started.
Her friends put her in touch with Carrie Mae Best, a black woman,
who was the owner and publisher of The Clarion. The picture and the story of
Viola appeared on the front page of the first issue of this paper in December 1946.
Her friends also contacted the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
This organization (which was founded in 1945) helped her find a lawyer who could work for her case against the owner of the movie theatre in New Glasgow.
The lawyer had good intentions, but good intentions do not guarantee a good result. The lawyer did not attack the policy of segregation. Instead, he tried to get financial compensation.
Step one was an appeal to a higher court. Sadly, it turned out that he was too late.
There was a deadline between the first case and an appeal to a higher court. When he appealed, the deadline had already expired.
Step two was an appeal to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Sadly, it turned out that he was stopped by a technical problem.
A lawyer was allowed to ask the Supreme Court to look at a case, but only if the suspect was still in custody at the time of the appeal. Since Viola had spent only one night in a cell, the Supreme Court could not accept the case.
Viola’s life was never the same as before. Her marriage came to an end. She no longer felt at home in Halifax. She moved to Montreal and later to New York.
Viola did not get any financial compensation. But her case became quite well-known in Canada and served as an inspiration for other Canadians who were victims of racial segregation.
Today the story of Viola Desmond is seen as a landmark case in the history of human rights in Canada.
Viola lived long enough to see that the law which supported a business owner’s right to practice discrimination was abolished.
It happened in 1954, when the Canadian parliament adopted the Fair Accommodation Practice Act which was supposed to end discrimination in public services.
But the verdict of 1946 was never reversed in her lifetime. When the died in 1965, she was still a convicted criminal according to Canadian law.
PART THREE
In 2010, Viola’s younger sister Wonda Robson tried to revive interest in her sister’s case. She contacted local media and local politicians in Nova Scotia. She told them that her sister had been a victim of an unjust system. She said her conviction was an injustice. She wanted justice for her sister.
Wonda had a good case, but this is not always enough to generate a positive response. Perhaps the timing was fortunate. Whatever the reason, the response from the local media and from the local politicians was positive. Suddenly, everything happened very fast.
In 2010, the government of Nova Scotia held an official ceremony in which Viola was granted a posthumous free pardon and an official apology from the premier of Nova Scotia.
A pardon is an act of mercy. A pardon says: we still think you are guilty, but we think you have suffered long enough, so we are going to release you now.
A free pardon is different. A free pardon says: we convicted you of a crime, but now we know we were wrong. You did not commit a crime. You were innocent. You are innocent. A free pardon is an exoneration.
A substantial section of the documentary film is devoted to the official ceremony held in 2010.
But the story of Viola Desmond does not end in 2010. Since the film was released in 2011, there have been several new developments. I will mention only one example which is perhaps the most important:
In 2016, the Bank of Canada announced that a portrait of Viola would appear on a new version of the 10-dollar bill.
The new bank note with Viola’s portrait was released in 2018.
It was the first time in Canadian history a portrait
of a woman appeared alone on a Canadian bank note.
Viola Desmond is sometimes described as the Canadian Rosa Parks. Is this description really appropriate?
When Constance Backhouse is interviewed in the film, she says Viola Desmond is the Canadian Rosa Parks.
Having said this, she immediately corrects herself and says: Perhaps it is better to turn things around? Perhaps it is better to say that Rosa Parks is the American Viola Desmond?
She is right.
It is better this way.
After all, Viola Desmond refused to give up her seat in the movie theatre in 1946. This was, after all, nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery.
PART FOUR
What do reviewers say about this film? This question is not easy to answer.
The film is not listed on IMDb. There is no rating. There are no reviews. The film is not available from Amazon. There is no rating. There are no reviews.
What do I say about it? In my opinion, this is a powerful document about racial segregation of black people and one woman’s struggle for civil rights in Canada.
We hear a lot about segregation of black people and the struggle for civil rights in the US. We almost never hear about segregation of black people and the struggle for civil rights in Canada.
We may get the impression that conditions in Canada were much better than in the US. When we watch this film, we can see that this impression is wrong. We can see that conditions in Canada were not as good as we might think.
The story presented in this film is important and deserves to be told. In this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
If you are interested in modern history – in particular the struggle for civil rights – this film is definitely something for you. It is highly recommended.
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 by Constance Backhouse (1999)
Viola Desmond’s Canada: A History of Blacks and Racial Segregation in the Promised Land by Graham Reynolds (with Wanda Robson) (2016)
Viola Desmond: Her Life and Times by Graham Reynolds (with Wanda Robson) (2018)
# 2. Videos
One Woman’s Resistance: Viola Desmond’s Story
Canadian Museum of Human Rights
(2012) (run time = 5 minutes)
Journey to Justice
The National Film Board of Canada
(2000) (run time = 47 minutes)
# 3. Articles available online
Constance Backhouse, “Racial segregation in Canadian legal history: Viola Desmond’s challenge, Nova Scotia, 1946,” Dalhouse Law Journal, volume 17 (1994) pages 299-362 (a PDF document)
Renee Martin, “Viola Desmond is not Canada’s Rosa Parks,” Global Comment, 18 April 2010
John Tattrie, “Is Viola Desmond really Canada’s Rosa Parks?” CBC News, 19 February 2016
Neil Parmar, “Why Canada’s Rosa Parks will be on the next $10 bill,” OZY – A Modern Media Company, 11 June 2017
The Canadian Encyclopedia
** Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada
** Prejudice and Discrimination in Canada
** Racism
** Black Female Freedom Fighters
** Viola Desmond (1914-1965)
** Carrie Mae Best (1903-2001)
*****
Viola Desmond on the Canadian
10 dollar bill released in 2018
*****
Viola Desmond on a Canadian stamp
issued in 2012
*****
Viola Desmond: Her Life and Times
by Graham Reynolds with Wanda Robson
(2018)
*****
Colour-Coded: A Legal History of
Racism in Canada, 1900-1950
by Constance Backhouse
(1999)
*****
The first issue of the Clarion
covers the case of Viola Desmond
(December 1946)
*****
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