Viola Desmond
(1914-1965)
Canadian activist
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Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil 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 she had paid for and the seat 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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| Born |
6 July 1914 Halifax, Nova Scotia
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| Died |
7 February 1965 (aged 50) New York City, New York, United States
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| Zodiac | Cancer |
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