Viola Desmond died on this date – February 7, 1965. 

Nova Scotian woman who triggered a change in Canada’s segregation laws when she refused to give up her seat at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasglow, Nova Scotia. She paid to enter the theatre Nov. 8, 1946, but didn’t know she took a seat in the “white’s only” section. Management demanded she move, and after she refused, they called the police. The manager and police grabbed Ms. Desmond and dragged her from the theatre and took her to jail. 

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She was charged with tax evasion – the white seats (on the main level) cost a penny more. Prosecution reasoned, that by paying the lesser price, she evaded the taxes on the full price. 

Often called “the Rosa Parks of Canada,” in 1946 Desmond refused to leave the “whites only” section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow, N.S.  

Desmond was dragged out by police and thrown in jail overnight. For the next 12 hours, she sat upright on the hard jail bench, wearing her white gloves. Desmond was fined $20 and sentenced to 30 days in prison. But she won an appeal in court on a technicality.

Her case generated so much publicity, Nova Scotia was forced to throw out its segregation laws in 1954.
Viola Desmond Heritage Minute debuts, honouring the ‘Rosa Parks of Canada’ | CBC News