Viola Desmond
The study of history is a boundless adventure that can lead one along many unexplored and even unimagined paths. I grew up in California during the 1960s and my initial historical interests were inspired by the civil rights movement and other events in the United States. When I began my academic career in Canada as an historian, over three decades ago, I could not have foreseen that, many years later, I would be exploring the life and times of an African-Nova Scotian beautician by the name of Viola Desmond. My personal interest in this iconic figure in Canada’s history began almost two decades ago when Viola’s youngest sister, Wanda Robson, became a student in a course I was teaching on the history of race relations at Cape Breton University. I did not discover Wanda’s family connection until several weeks into the course when I began a discussion of the now famous incident that occurred in 1946 when Viola refused to give up her seat in the “white only” section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. When I shared a picture of Viola with the class, Wanda raised her hand and said: “That’s my sister!” This eureka moment proved to be life-changing for both of us. It created a close student-mentor bond that, over the years, has developed into a lasting collaboration and friendship. Because of my continuing interest in Viola Desmond’s story, I have discovered that this relationship has substantially reversed and Wanda has now, to a very large extent, become my inspiration and mentor.
Education for Wanda was part of a personal journey of self-discovery and a fulfillment of a lifelong dream. She had briefly attended university after completing high school over half a century before, but discontinued her education to work and raise a family. After taking my course in 2000, Wanda continued with her university education and in 2004, at the age of seventy-seven, she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Cape Breton University. Following her graduation, Wanda began a campaign to educate youth and raise public awareness about her sister and the struggle for equal rights in Canada. In addition to being a frequent guest in several of my courses, she gave numerous media interviews and presentations to schools throughout the province. As a result of Wanda’s efforts to raise public awareness, the government of Nova Scotia granted Viola Desmond a posthumous free pardon in 2010. In a remarkably short period of time, Viola Desmond has risen from historical obscurity to a national civil rights icon and, today she has the unique distinction of being the first woman, besides the Queen, to be exclusively featured on our national currency.
The research for this book began as a direct consequence of Viola’s pardon in 2010. Following this historic action, John Harker, the president of Cape Breton University, created the Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice and named me as its first holder. This appointment provided me with an opportunity to work with Wanda, which led to the publication in 2016 of Viola Desmond’s Canada: A History of Blacks and Racial Segregation in the Promised Land. The book sought to tell Viola’s story in the larger context of the narrative of race in Canadian history. Viola Desmond: Her Life and Times continues her story as a woman of courage, but also highlights her achievement as a pioneer Black entrepreneur.
Writing a biography of Viola Desmond presents a number of challenges. Although she has most certainly left a significant mark on Canadian history, she did not leave a first-hand record of her life. There are no known letters, diaries or other primary sources that can provide an account of her life in her own voice. She is known to us today only by the Roseland Theatre incident and her accomplishments as a businesswoman (together with the memories of a few surviving family members and others who knew her during her lifetime). Apart from a limited number of available documents and interviews conducted during the late 1990s, historians have little to work with in piecing together the story of her life. Wanda Robson is the only remaining family member with an extensive recollection of Viola’s life. Although Wanda was twelve years younger than Viola, she remained in the family home during the formative years of Viola’s business and, along with her mother, she assisted Viola in the daily operation of her beauty culture enterprise. Viola’s other siblings left Halifax, Nova Scotia and moved to other regions of the country to work and raise their families. Unfortunately, there are major gaps in her life where no known record or memory exists. These missing portions include extended periods when she trained in Atlantic City and in New York City, as well as the last years of her life when she lived in Harlem until she died suddenly of an intestinal bleed in 1965, at the age of fifty.
Much of what we know about her today is through the research of legal historian Constance Backhouse. In 1999, Backhouse published Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950, which was a groundbreaking case study of six incidents of racism that illustrated the role played by the law in reinforcing racial stereotypes and discrimination. Backhouse was the first scholar to thoroughly examine the story of Viola Desmond and the Roseland Theatre incident. She and her research assistants conducted interviews with members of Viola’s family and others who knew her, including several of her students. Backhouse’s research is regarded today as a starting point for any serious investigation into Viola’s life. Her examination of the culture of the 1940s and the systemic racism of Canada’s legal system has added substantially to our understanding of the informal and widespread custom of racial segregation that existed throughout Canada—a practice that, in many respects, mimicked the Jim Crow laws of the southern United States,1 which were a series of anti-Black laws created to enforce racial segregation.
The spectre of race has weighed heavy on the history of Canada and the United States and it continues to shape the life experiences of Blacks who live in both nations. Race is not only a central feature of our culture and history, but it also shapes the writing as well as the reading of history. This fact was brought home to my own writing of history when I received racially sensitive criticism from several Black readers of my book Viola Desmond’s Canada. One online reviewer stated that although my book presented a great deal of important information, she cautioned readers that the author was not Black so they “can apply the appropriate lens when reading the book.” Professional historians are divided on whether or not only those who are members of a particular social or racial group can write objectively about that group. There is, however, broad consensus that the craft of writing history aims to achieve objectivity through careful and unbiased research together with a well-reasoned and honest consideration of the facts. This standard of the discipline applies to all those who engage in historical research and it guides the process either from a perspective of being a member of the particular group being studied or as an outside observer.
The following pages provide a brief history of the life and times of Viola Desmond together with an assessment of her influence on the struggle for human rights in Canada and her legacy as a woman of national historic importance. This includes a detailed discussion of Viola’s beauty culture enterprise and her significance as a pioneer African-Canadian businesswoman. Wanda also shares memories of her sister and her recollection of the Roseland Theatre incident.
The writing of this book is a collaborative effort that we hope will offer readers an informative glimpse into the life and times of Viola Desmond from both an “inside out” as well as an “outside in” historical vantage point. I can say quite frankly this book would not have been written without the inspiration and guidance of Wanda Robson. She is, in her own right, an extraordinary and consequential woman. Her efforts to raise public awareness and correct the injustices of the past are a reminder to us all that through dedication and persistence, a single person can make a difference in effecting positive change.