Latest news with #ViolaDesmond
CBC
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Dartmouth event celebrates Black beauty on Viola Desmond's birthday
A celebration Sunday in Dartmouth to observe the birthday of civil rights icon Viola Desmond also highlighted her contributions to the Black business community in Nova Scotia. A crowd of around 200 people gathered for the event on what would have been Desmond's 111th birthday. It was dubbed Being Black and Beautiful in Downtown Dartmouth and was hosted by the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission in collaboration with the Black Beauty Culture Association. "We're together celebrating being our own kind of beautiful," said Samantha Dixon Slawter, co-founder of the association. Desmond rose to national prominence for challenging racial segregation after being arrested for refusing to leave a "whites-only" area at a New Glasgow movie theatre in 1946. The theatre was segregated at that time, with Black patrons relegated to the balcony while floor seating was reserved for whites. But she was also a trained beautician who started her practice specifically to address the absence of hair and skincare products for Black women. She was in New Glasgow because she was on a business trip for her successful hair cosmetics company. Slawter said Desmond's legacy as a businesswoman is just as important as her activism. "Black people, we had to actually in some cases we had to do without a beautician. We had to do our own hair. And Viola came up with teaching beauty culture, especially to Black women and for Black women," she said. "She actually changed culture for us." Through the Black Beauty Culture Association, an organization with the stated goal of encouraging equality and equity in the beauty industry, Slawter said she is honouring an under-explored aspect of Desmond's legacy. Mary Lukindo, an apprentice under the Black Beauty Culture Hair Innovator program, said that prior to working for the Black Beauty Culture Association and learning from Slawter, she learned in school about Desmond's activism, but was unaware of her work as a beautician. That aspect of Desmond's life made her more identifiable in Lukindo's eyes, she said. "She really represents what most Black people are," Lukindo said. "We are multifaceted, we are passionate, we are talented." Tim Rissesco is the CEO of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, which helped organize Sunday's event. "With working with the Black community, we can encourage other Black entrepreneurs to come to downtown Dartmouth as a place to do business, and we also want to make sure that everybody feels welcome in downtown," Rissesco said. After Desmond's arrest, the Halifax businesswoman was left in jail for 12 hours before being fined $26 for tax evasion. The fine, based on the one-cent difference in tax paid for floor and balcony tickets, was the only way local authorities could legally justify her jailing. Desmond, who died in 1965, was given a posthumous apology and pardon for her arrest by the province in April 2010. She was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2017 and a $10 bill bearing her likeness was issued in November 2018.
CTV News
06-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
New book tells life story of Nova Scotia's ‘Sister To Courage' Wanda Robson
Wanda Robson shares stories about her sister, civil rights activist Viola Desmond, as a ferry is unveiled in her honour in Halifax. She was known as Nova Scotia's 'Sister To Courage' and now a new book casts Wanda Robson as the main character in the story of her own life. 'At least if you look at a $10 bill, you see the image of Viola Desmond, but very few people know the work that was done behind the scenes,' said Graham Reynolds, professor emeritus at Cape Breton University and author of 'The Life of Wanda Robson - Canada's Advocate for Viola Desmond and Social Justice.' Desmond's story is well-known and Robson, her sister, was there every step of the way in bringing it to light, including writing the book 'Sister To Courage.' Viola Desmond Civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond is seen in this photo take in the early 1940s. (Wanda and Joe Robson Collection. 16-80-30220. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University) Reynolds – who taught Robson at CBU when she went back to school in her seventies, earning an undergraduate degree in 2004 – has released a new published account that tells the backstory of her life. 'Because without Wanda, we wouldn't know really anything about Viola,' Reynolds said. 'She would be just a couple of sentences in a history book somewhere.' In the front row at Tuesday's book launch was Joe Robson, Wanda Robson's husband of more than 50 years until she passed away in February 2022 at age 95. 'To be truthful, she would say 'Why me?'' Robson said when asked what his late wife might think of the new book. 'Because a number of times with different accolades, that's the comment she would make to me – 'Why me?'' The book details Robson's early days growing up in Halifax, how she picked up the pieces of her life following a difficult first marriage and her rise to become a nationally-renowned advocate for social justice and her sister's legacy. 'I think she should be remembered as a woman of courage herself, and a remarkable woman that really set out to make a difference – and she did,' Reynolds said. Copies of the book are available online at For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
