Viola Desmond (nee Viola Irene Davis) was born on July 1914 on Halifax, New Scotland (Canada), one of the ten children of James and Gwendolin Davis.

Her father was a black barber and her mother the daughter of a white protestant pastor.

She studied cosmetics but the racial laws of the time didn’t allow her to do it in Halifax and she went to Montreal, Atlantic City and New York.

Viola returned to Halifax and opened a beauty salon and specialized in African American cosmetic, and even she created a school of beauty culture.

An incident in the cinema, she sat in the seats reserved for whites, led her to spend a night in prison and pay 20 Canadian dollars from that time. Later, she went on several trials for that. There she fought for her rights and those of the black communities.

She divorced her husband, she went to live in New York to open a clinic, but on February 7, 1965, she died of a gastrointestinal bleeding at the age of 50.

On April 14, 2010, Viola received the pardon posthumously the first time in Canadian history.

On December 8, 2016, the Bank of Canada chose Viola Desmond as the first woman to appear on a Canadian dollar bill, on the $ 10 bill, beginning in 2018.

Desmond challenged racism by refusing to move form seats in "Whites Only" sections and contributed to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.

JULIA ARNAL – ENGLISH FOR FUN 3C