0:01

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,

0:03

a production of I Heart Radio. Hello

0:12

and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy

0:14

V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry.

0:17

We have had a lot of requests over

0:19

the years for an episode on Viola Desmond,

0:22

who was jailed and

0:24

tried and convicted after refusing

0:26

to leave her seat in a segregated movie

0:28

theater in Glasgow, Nova, Scotia.

0:31

In that's

0:33

probably what she's the most known for today,

0:35

thanks in part to the efforts of her younger

0:38

sister, Wanda Robson, which started

0:40

a little over twenty years ago. But

0:42

Viola Desmond was also an entrepreneur.

0:45

She was inspired by the story of Madam

0:47

C. J. Walker to start her own business.

0:50

She established the first beauty

0:52

salon for black women in her area,

0:54

and she founded a school to train

0:57

other black women to do the same.

1:00

So she's one of those people where her life a lot of

1:02

times gets summarized as this one moment

1:04

that there's a whole other story. Viola

1:07

Irene Davis was born in Halifax

1:09

on July six. Her

1:12

father, James Albert Davis, held

1:14

several jobs over the years, including

1:16

working as a barber, a stevedore and

1:18

eventually a car dealer. Her

1:21

mother, Gwendolen Irene Johnson Davis,

1:23

was the daughter of a Baptist minister. A

1:26

lot of sources described this as

1:28

an interracial marriage because Gwendolen's

1:31

mother was white and her father had

1:33

what's described as a small amount of

1:35

African ancestry.

1:37

In the words of Viola's sister, Wanda, quote,

1:39

while Mum considered herself colored,

1:42

moms certainly looked white. Yeah,

1:45

there are various papers I read

1:47

about about Viola Desmond

1:50

that talk about how this would

1:52

have affected their family. Um,

1:54

it doesn't come up a lot though, and her

1:56

sister's writing about the family. So

1:59

it's hard is how how much of that is speculative and

2:01

how much effects there like actual lived

2:04

experience. In addition

2:06

to Viola and Wanda, James and Gwendolen

2:08

had thirteen other children, nine

2:11

of whom survived childhood. The

2:13

older children helped with the younger ones, and

2:15

since Viola was the youngest of

2:17

the four older girls, she took a big

2:20

interest in her younger siblings care

2:22

and education. And this was especially true

2:24

as her older sisters got married and

2:26

left the house. Uh,

2:29

there's some gender divide here. But also the

2:31

family was mostly girls, a

2:33

lot of girls in the family. This

2:35

family did struggle at times,

2:38

especially during the Great Depression, but Wanda

2:40

Robson describes their home as one

2:42

where you could just feel the love, and

2:45

their parents made sure that the children

2:47

never felt deprived. We

2:50

really don't have a lot of personal detail

2:52

or reflections about Viola's life.

2:55

She did not leave any journals or letters,

2:58

but we do know a few things thanks to her

3:00

sister's writing. The family

3:02

was devoutly religious. Since Gwendolen

3:05

had been raised Baptist, she often went to Baptist

3:07

services, and James was Anglican.

3:11

They didn't seem to be concerned about which

3:13

churches their children joined as they grew

3:15

up, as long as they went to church, and

3:18

Viola and her siblings ultimately

3:20

joined four different denominations.

3:23

Viola herself received confirmation

3:25

at Trinity Anglican Church. The

3:28

Davis's were also a respected

3:30

part of the black community in Halifax

3:32

and were active in church and community

3:35

organizations. At this

3:37

point, the Halifax area had two

3:39

primarily black neighborhoods. One

3:41

was in the North end of Halifax itself,

3:43

and the other was Africville, which was on the

3:45

outskirts of the city. In

3:47

many ways, both of these communities were thriving.

3:50

They were socially very close knit. They

3:52

were home to black owned businesses and

3:54

community groups, but they were also the

3:56

targets of racism and discrimination.

3:59

One reason, then, the black population was

4:01

clustered into just these two areas,

4:03

is that many property deeds for

4:06

other parts of the city came along with racially

4:08

restrictive covenants, and he specified

4:11

that the property could only be sold

4:13

to a white buyer. Africaville,

4:16

in particular, was also excluded

4:18

from a lot of basic city services

4:20

like clean water, a sewage

4:22

system, and trash collection, even

4:25

though its residents were paying city taxes.

4:28

The Davis has lived in the North End,

4:30

and when Viola was three years old, their

4:32

neighborhood was devastated by the Halifax

4:35

Explosion. This explosion

4:37

took place when two ships collided

4:39

in Halifax Harbor on December

4:42

six, nineteen. More

4:44

than seventeen hundred people died, and

4:46

the explosion was particularly

4:49

destructive and deadly in the Richmond neighborhood

4:51

of Halifax's North End and the Megama

4:53

community of Turtle Grove just across the

4:55

Harbor. The Davis has

4:57

lived just a few blocks back from the water,

5:00

and the explosion shattered the windows

5:02

of their home as well as causing other damage.

5:06

Viola was in her high chair at the time

5:08

in a window blind fell over

5:10

her from the blown out window. For

5:13

a moment, her family was afraid that she had been

5:15

killed. When Viola

5:17

started elementary school, it was that one

5:19

of the only integrated schools

5:21

in Nova Scotia at the time.

5:24

Public schools all over Canada were often

5:26

segregated by race, although only

5:28

Nova Scotia and Ontario had

5:30

segregation laws on the books. These

5:34

laws were written in such a way that they

5:36

allowed for segregated schools,

5:38

but once they were in place, white officials

5:41

often used them as a justification

5:43

to force black children to attend separate

5:46

schools. Outside the scope

5:48

of this podcast, Canada also had a

5:50

system of residential schools for Indigenous

5:52

students, which we talked about on the show

5:55

before. These separated Indigenous

5:57

children from their families and their communities

5:59

and forced them to assimilate with white culture

6:02

and an active cultural genocide. Viola's

6:05

grandfather had been part of a successful

6:07

effort to integrate some of the public schools

6:09

in Halifax that started in eighteen

6:12

seventy six. This opened

6:14

up the possibility for black students to attend

6:16

high school since there were no segregated

6:19

high schools for black children

6:21

in Halifax, but Viola

6:23

and her siblings still experienced

6:25

racism within those integrated schools.

6:28

For example, Viola's sister Wanda,

6:30

recalled an incident in which Viola and

6:32

their mother confronted her Grade two teacher,

6:35

who required black children to sit

6:37

in the back of the room but invited

6:39

the students who made the highest test scores

6:42

to sit in the front row. Wanda

6:44

had the top score of the whole class,

6:47

and her teacher had tried to move her Integrade

6:49

three rather than allowing her

6:52

to sit in the front. Yeah,

6:54

this wasn't a reward. It was a Wanda

6:57

is clearly smarter than all the rest of us,

7:00

We're going to move her into like in a very

7:02

sarcastic way. It's

7:04

an infuriating story. Um

7:06

Viola earned her high school diploma in two

7:09

and after that she became a teacher. Teaching.

7:12

Colleges wouldn't admit black

7:14

students in Nova Scotia, so black

7:16

teachers qualified by taking an exam.

7:19

After she passed her exam, Viola taught

7:21

for a couple of years that segregated schools

7:23

for black children, which was the only place

7:25

that black teachers were allowed to teach.

7:28

She didn't want to be a teacher forever, though.

7:31

She had read an article about beauty

7:33

entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C. J.

7:36

Walker and was really inspired by

7:38

her example. Madam C.

7:40

J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove

7:42

in Louisiana in eighteen sixty seven.

7:45

She was the first child in her family

7:47

to be born into freedom after the end of the

7:50

U s Civil War. She

7:52

took the name Madam C. J. Walker

7:54

after marrying Charles James Walker,

7:57

using Madam to give her line of beauty

7:59

and hair products a more refined

8:01

and luxurious name. She

8:03

also established schools of beauty

8:05

culture and trained thousands of black

8:08

people in skills like hair care,

8:10

beauty, in the treatment of scalp conditions.

8:13

She's credited as the first woman in

8:15

the US to become a self made millionaire.

8:19

Viola wanted to do something similar

8:21

in Nova Scotia, where there were no beauty

8:23

schools that accepted black women, and

8:25

there were also no beauty salons

8:27

in Halifax that would take black women as

8:30

customers, although there were some barbershops

8:32

for black men. One was

8:35

owned by Jack Desmond, who became

8:37

a barber after an on the job injury

8:39

put an end to his career in construction.

8:42

Jack opened his shop in nineteen thirty

8:44

two and he and Viola started dating

8:47

just before she went to Montreal to study

8:49

at Field Beauty Culture School. This

8:52

was one of the few beauty schools

8:55

in Canada that accepted black students.

8:57

She started studying there in four

9:00

and he would travel to Montreal by train

9:02

to visit her. They got married

9:05

in ninety six, and once Viola

9:07

got back to Halifax, they were both active

9:09

in church and community organizations. In

9:12

n seven, Viola opened

9:15

Viz Studio of Beauty Culture

9:17

next to her husband's barbershop, and

9:19

she immediately developed a dedicated

9:22

group of clients, some of them traveling

9:24

from other parts of Canada to see her.

9:27

Her salon also became a social hub

9:29

for the neighborhood. People described

9:32

her as charismatic, optimistic, kind,

9:34

and deeply devoted to her family. She

9:37

was also independent and ambitious,

9:40

and soon she wanted to continue her

9:42

training, and we will get into that after

9:44

we paused for a sponsor break.

9:55

Viola Desmond's first stop in

9:57

Continuing her education was at Apex

10:00

College in Atlantic City, New Jersey,

10:02

where she trained under Sarah Spencer Washington.

10:06

Sarah Spencer Washington, Madam C.

10:08

J. Walker, and any Turnbow Malone

10:10

are regarded as three of the primary

10:12

founders of the black beauty culture industry

10:15

in North America. All three

10:17

women started their own salons, developed

10:20

their own beauty and hygiene products,

10:22

and established their own schools to train

10:24

other people, especially other Black

10:26

women, to support themselves

10:29

and bolster their communities by establishing

10:31

their own beauty businesses. This

10:34

work was connected to the idea of

10:36

racial uplift. That's an idea

10:38

originally put forth by figures like W. E.

10:40

B. Du Boys and Booker T. Washington

10:43

that the black race could improve its own

10:45

circumstances from within through

10:47

things like education, culture, and

10:49

racial pride. The philosophy

10:52

of racial uplift and its legacy are

10:54

complicated. This was rooted

10:57

in the idea of respectability,

10:59

and it also had connections to eugenics,

11:01

including the idea that the most educated,

11:04

intelligent black people, or the

11:06

talented tenth should act as

11:08

guides and leaders for the rest. It

11:11

also made black people responsible for

11:13

dismantling white people's racism,

11:16

and there were proponents of racial

11:18

uplift and others who criticized

11:21

the black beauty culture industry, interpreting

11:24

that industry as reinforcing beauty

11:26

standards that replicated what was considered

11:29

attractive in white people. Some

11:31

of that perception stems from

11:33

misinformation, though, for example, Madam

11:36

C. J. Walker is wrongly credited

11:38

with inventing the hot comb that

11:40

was really invented by French hairdresser

11:43

Marcel Gratta in the eighteen seventies.

11:46

Some of the most popular skin lightning

11:48

creams and hair straighteners

11:50

of this era were marketed to black

11:52

consumers, but they were actually developed

11:55

and sold by white people, including

11:57

Dr Fred Palmer, who was a white pharmac

12:00

this who developed a skin whitener that

12:02

contained mercury, and a

12:04

hairdresser that was described as softening

12:07

hair and straightening kinks. At

12:09

the same time, lighter skin

12:11

was generally seen as more attractive than dark

12:14

skin, and colorism was and

12:16

of course continues to be widespread.

12:19

And it's also true that many of the hairstyles

12:21

these women developed and taught others to do

12:24

involved straightening people's hair. But

12:26

the women who founded the black beauty culture

12:29

industry really didn't interpret what

12:31

they were doing as a replication of white

12:33

beauty standards. Instead,

12:35

it was a chance to help black women bring out

12:38

their own beauty and to look good

12:40

and feel good about themselves and see

12:42

to the unique needs of black people's skin

12:44

and hair. For generations,

12:47

white people had tried to rob Black women

12:49

of their agency over their own bodies

12:51

through the institution of slavery,

12:54

and the beauty industry offered a way to

12:56

reclaim that agency.

12:58

Many also saw beauty culture as an

13:00

act of resistance against racism,

13:03

basically showing white people that Black

13:05

women were ladies too. So

13:08

to return to Viola Desmond. In addition

13:10

to learning more about things

13:12

like hairdressing and the treatment of scalp

13:15

conditions, she also learned chemistry

13:17

and the basics of wig making while at APEX.

13:20

When she got back to Halifax in y

13:23

she really wanted to learn more about

13:25

wig making. She enjoyed it and

13:27

she was good at it, and she also worked

13:29

with clients who wanted access to everything

13:31

from small hairpieces to

13:34

full custom made wigs. So

13:36

she went back to the US again, this

13:38

time for a wig making apprenticeship

13:40

in New York City. According

13:43

to Wanda Robson, their mother

13:45

was so worried about Viola's safety

13:47

in New York that she sewed her money

13:49

into her bra before she left. Once

13:52

Desmond finished her apprenticeship, she

13:54

went back to Halifax and moved her salon

13:57

to a larger space, one where

13:59

she could set up wefting loom for making

14:01

wigs. It also had space

14:03

where she could mix and package her line of

14:05

skin and hair care products.

14:07

She sold these under the name Cepia

14:09

by Viola Desmond, and they included

14:12

hair glosses, oils, and palm

14:14

aids, as well as face powders and lipsticks

14:16

designed for people with darker skin. She

14:19

described her face powder as having a nut

14:22

brown color and one that was quote

14:24

especially blended to enhance dark

14:26

complexions. In four

14:29

she opened the Desmond School of

14:31

Beauty Culture, which had five students

14:33

in its first graduating class. The

14:36

program expanded over the next two

14:38

years, growing to about fifteen students

14:41

at a time, and then these students

14:43

would go on to establish their own beauty

14:45

salons and employ other black

14:47

women at those salons, and

14:50

Desmond's business was a big success.

14:52

She earned enough money to buy her own car,

14:54

which was not common at all

14:56

for black women at the time. She

14:58

used this to travel all over Nova

15:01

Scotia to teach classes, sell her

15:03

products, and make deliveries, often

15:05

traveling by herself to do so. As

15:08

she traveled, her experiences with racism

15:10

and segregation could really vary from

15:12

one place to another. While

15:15

there were some laws on the books in Nova

15:17

Scotia that related to race in some way,

15:19

including the school segregation law that

15:21

we talked about earlier, when it came

15:24

to public accommodations like movie theaters,

15:26

hotels, and restaurants, there was

15:28

no law requiring segregation, but

15:31

there was no law forbidding discrimination based

15:34

on race either. There

15:36

were, however, several court

15:39

decisions that allowed discrimination

15:42

by private businesses. The most

15:44

famous is known as the Christie case.

15:46

On July eleven six,

15:49

Fred Christie and Emil King were

15:51

refused service at the York Tavern

15:53

in the Forum in Montreal because Christie

15:56

was black. Christie filed

15:58

suit, and his lawyer Are argued that

16:00

York Taverns liquor license meant

16:02

it had a duty to serve all customers

16:05

regardless of race. The

16:08

first court that they appeared

16:10

before agreed with this, but then

16:12

on appeal a higher court

16:14

ruled that quote a merchant or trader

16:16

is free to carry on his business in the

16:19

manner that he conceives to be best for

16:21

that business. Christie

16:23

appealed that decision, and the Supreme Court

16:26

of Canada ruled that freedom of commerce

16:28

outweighed customers right not

16:31

to be discriminated against. So

16:33

businesses in Canada had the right

16:35

to discriminate against customers,

16:38

but whether they actually did so could

16:40

really vary. We have already

16:42

talked about barbershops and beauty salons,

16:45

beyond that, some restaurants served

16:47

black customers while others did not. Some

16:50

hotels rented rooms to black people

16:53

but not others. Some movie

16:55

theaters had integrated seating, while

16:57

others required black people to sit together

17:00

they're in a specific section. This

17:02

could also really vary from city to city,

17:05

and from one business to another within

17:07

a city, and it could change from

17:09

one owner or manager to another.

17:12

On November eight, n Viola

17:14

Desmond was traveling through New Glasgow,

17:17

Nova Scotia on her way to Sydney,

17:19

Nova Scotia, when her car broke down.

17:22

She was able to get to a mechanic, but

17:24

the repair was going to take some time, so

17:26

she got a hotel room and she decided

17:29

to go see a movie at the Roseland Theater.

17:32

She didn't go to the movies very often,

17:34

but she had time she did not have

17:36

anything else to do. The movie playing

17:39

was Dark Mirror, starring Olivia to have

17:41

aland whose performances

17:43

Desmond had enjoyed in movies that she had

17:46

seen. Because she was not

17:48

local, Desmond didn't know that

17:50

the Roseland Theater segregated its

17:52

seating by race. White

17:54

customers sat downstairs while black

17:56

customers sat upstairs in the balcony.

17:59

This had been the case for years in

18:03

some black high school students had been removed

18:05

from the theater for trying to sit downstairs.

18:08

New Glasgow resident Carrie Best heard

18:11

about this and wrote and spoke to the owner,

18:13

Norman W. Mason, trying to get

18:15

him to reverse the policy, but he refused,

18:19

so she and her son went to the theater

18:21

and tried to get a seat on the main floor,

18:24

and when they were arrested and charged with disturbing

18:26

the peace, she filed a lawsuit.

18:30

Much like in the Fred Christie case, the

18:32

court ruled that the owner had the right to

18:34

refuse service to anyone, So

18:37

five years later, Viola Desmond

18:39

went to the ticket counter at the same theater

18:41

and asked for a downstairs ticket. The

18:43

ticket seller, Peggy Mellinson, gave her

18:46

some change and a ticket for the balcony.

18:48

Desmond had no reason to think she

18:50

had been given anything other than what

18:53

she had asked for, and she tried to go downstairs,

18:56

but when she handed her ticket to the ticket

18:58

taker, Prima Davis, and then tried to

19:00

go inside, David told her she

19:02

had a balcony ticket. Desmond

19:05

thought this was just a mistake, and she

19:07

went back to the counter to correct it, and

19:10

Melanson told her, quote, I'm not

19:12

allowed to sell downstairs tickets

19:14

to you people. It was

19:16

clear to Desmond what Melonson

19:18

meant by this, and she decided to sit

19:21

on the main level of the theater anyway,

19:23

ignoring Davis's attempt to stop

19:25

her. Soon, the manager,

19:27

Henry McNeil approached Desmond and

19:30

told her to move to the balcony.

19:32

Desmond pointed out that she had asked for a

19:34

main floor ticket and that when she realized

19:36

she had one for the balcony, she had tried to exchange

19:39

it. She said she needed to sit

19:41

downstairs because she could not see well from

19:43

the balcony, and pointed out that there were

19:45

plenty of available seats. McNeil

19:48

told her that the theater had the right to segregate

19:51

its seating and that if she did not leave,

19:53

he would call the police. When

19:55

an officer arrived, he told Desmond

19:57

that if she didn't leave, he would throw

19:59

her to the theater, based

20:02

on an affidavit she filed in support

20:04

of her appeal. Desmond didn't

20:06

believe he would do this obviously,

20:08

she knew racism and discrimination

20:11

existed. She had experienced some overt

20:13

racism while studying in the United States.

20:16

She had heard the experiences of her

20:18

clients at the salon, one of

20:20

whom was actually carry best. The

20:23

idea that an officer might physically

20:25

remove her from the theater when

20:27

she had done nothing wrong didn't

20:30

really enter her mind. She stayed

20:32

where she was. When

20:34

she refused to move, the officer grabbed

20:37

her and dragged her into the lobby.

20:40

She struggled against him, trying to grab

20:42

onto the door frame as she was pulled past

20:44

it, and she lost her purse and one

20:46

of her shoes in the process.

20:48

Someone handed her lost shoe and her purse

20:51

to her, and then the officer and the

20:53

theater manager carried her out to the street.

20:55

Where she was put into a taxi that took

20:58

her to the town jail. She

21:00

was put in a cell and kept there overnight,

21:02

where she was too terrified to sleep. Viola

21:06

Desmond was put on trial the very

21:08

next morning, which we will get to you after

21:10

a sponsor break.

21:20

On the morning of November nine, barely

21:24

twelve hours after she was forcibly

21:26

taken out of the Roseland theater, Viola

21:29

Desmond was put on trial. The

21:32

downstairs ticket at the theater cost

21:34

forty cents, including a three

21:36

cent amusement tax, but the upstairs

21:39

ticket was thirty cents, including

21:41

a two cent amusement tax, so

21:44

she was charged with trying to defraud

21:46

the provincial government of the one

21:48

cent difference in that tax.

21:51

The tax was required at movie theaters

21:54

under Nova Scotia's nineteen fifteen

21:56

Theaters, Cinematographs and Amusements

21:59

Act, although it was

22:01

the theater, not the law,

22:03

that had set different prices

22:05

for upstairs and downstairs tickets.

22:08

This was a private prosecution, with

22:11

the theater manager bringing the charges.

22:14

The only legal official present

22:16

at the trial was the magistrate, Roderick

22:18

McKay. It wasn't standard

22:20

procedure at the time to inform people

22:22

of their rights, and Desmond was not told

22:25

that she had the right to legal counsel or

22:27

the right to have the trial postponed until

22:30

she had actually consulted with a lawyer. No

22:32

one explained what was happening or

22:35

what was expected of her. A

22:37

series of witnesses was called,

22:40

including the cashier, the ticket

22:42

taker, and the theater manager,

22:44

and after each of them was questioned,

22:47

Desmond was asked if she had

22:49

any questions. She had

22:51

no idea she was being asked

22:53

if she wanted to cross examine these

22:56

witnesses. She thought she was just

22:58

being asked if she had understood what

23:00

they had said. She did understand,

23:02

so she said she had no questions. When

23:05

Desmond took the stand herself, she

23:08

pointed out that she had tried to buy the

23:10

more expensive ticket, including

23:12

the additional tax, she had not

23:14

been trying to evade paying it, but

23:17

she wasn't given the opportunity to enter

23:19

any evidence herself, or even told

23:21

that that was something she could do. Desmond

23:25

was found guilty and find twenty

23:27

dollars plus court costs, With those

23:29

six dollars and costs going to

23:31

the theater manager. Nobody

23:34

mentioned Race during these

23:36

proceedings, but it was clear that the

23:38

real issue was not a tax. It

23:40

was her refusal to sit where

23:42

the black patrons were expected to sit, but

23:44

that tax was the only thing they could prosecute

23:47

her for. When Viola Desmond

23:49

was released and her car was ready, she

23:52

abandoned the rest of her business trip and

23:54

went back home. Her husband

23:56

had grown up in New Glasgow and when

23:58

she told him what had happened, and he was unsurprised.

24:02

She saw a doctor about her injuries

24:04

and he told her she should talk to a lawyer.

24:07

He also wrote letters about the incident

24:09

on her behalf to various government

24:11

officials. Desmond's

24:14

friends and family were divided

24:16

about what she should do. Some,

24:18

including her husband, thought it was best

24:21

to just let it go. Her

24:23

friends, per Lene and the Reverend

24:25

William Oliver, who had helped found

24:27

the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement

24:30

of Colored People, encouraged her to appeal,

24:33

and the n s a a CP raised

24:35

money for it. Carry Best,

24:38

who at this point had become a journalist

24:40

and a human rights activist, covered

24:42

Desmond's arrest and trial and appeal

24:44

process in the newspaper The Clarion,

24:47

which Best had helped found Sometimes.

24:50

The Clarion is described as the first newspaper

24:52

in Nova Scotia with a black editor and publisher,

24:55

but at least one earlier paper,

24:57

The Atlantic Advocate, was in print.

24:59

From nineteen fifteen and nineteen seventeen.

25:02

Only a handful of black lawyers were

25:04

practicing in Nova Scotia, and

25:06

Desmond chose a white lawyer named

25:09

Frederick William Bissit. First,

25:11

he filed suit against Harry McNeil

25:13

in the Theater on the grounds that Desmond

25:15

had been assaulted, maliciously prosecuted,

25:19

and falsely arrested and imprisoned,

25:21

but for unknown reasons, this suit

25:23

never made it to trial. In

25:26

December of nineteen forty six, Visit

25:28

applied for a writ of cirtiary

25:31

before Nova Scotia Supreme Court

25:33

Justice Maynard Brown Archibald,

25:35

asking him to quash Desmond's conviction.

25:38

In Canada, a writ of cercary

25:41

usually comes into play when a traditional

25:44

appeal isn't an option for some reason,

25:46

or when there's just an obvious error

25:49

that was made in a lower court. Visit

25:52

argued that the magistrate had not

25:54

had jurisdiction to convict Desmond.

25:58

It is not clear why Bisit chose to

26:00

pursue this course rather than appeal through

26:02

the lower courts. The deadline

26:04

for an appeal had passed. It had to be done

26:07

within ten days of the conviction. He

26:09

had issued a writ in the civil suit just

26:12

five days after the conviction, so

26:14

it doesn't seem like he was just taking too long.

26:17

It's possible that the appeal deadline

26:19

passed before it became clear that the civil

26:21

case wasn't coming to trial. Regardless,

26:25

Archibald decided against Desmond

26:27

on January twentieth, ninety seven,

26:30

saying that the proper procedure would have been

26:32

an appeal, and that since the magistrate

26:34

did have jurisdiction, a sortiary

26:37

process was not available to her. Bessett

26:40

tried again, this time taking

26:42

the matter to the full Nova Scotia

26:44

Supreme Court. The four justices

26:47

each expressed differing opinions

26:50

on why, but they all agreed that

26:52

the case should be dismissed, and that

26:54

decision was announced on May seventeenth

26:57

seven. It was clear to it

27:00

some of the justices that this case really

27:02

wasn't about a theater tax, although

27:05

there were virtually no references to

27:07

race in the written record. In his concurring

27:10

opinion, Justice W. L. Hall

27:12

wrote, quote, One wonders if

27:14

the manager of the theater who laid the complaint

27:16

was so zealous because of a bona fide

27:18

belief that there had been an attempt to defraud

27:21

the Province of Nova Scotia of

27:23

the sum of one cent or

27:26

was it a surreptitious endeavor to enforce

27:28

a Jim Crow rule by misuse of

27:30

a public statute. Desmond's

27:33

case had been widely covered in

27:35

newspapers in Canada and parts of

27:37

the United States, and this whole process

27:40

had put a lot of strain on

27:42

her and her family. People

27:45

continued to disagree about whether

27:47

she should have pursued the case, with some

27:49

feeling like she had drawn unwanted

27:52

attention to the black community in Nova

27:54

Scotia. Others instead

27:56

questioned why Bissett had not tried

27:58

to make an equal right argument that could

28:01

have been applied more broadly. Desmond,

28:04

of course, was deeply disappointed

28:06

in this outcome. Her

28:08

marriage had already been strained. Viola

28:11

was a lot more ambitious than Jack was,

28:13

and he was increasingly uncomfortable

28:15

with and frustrated by all her

28:17

travel and time away from home. But

28:20

he was also strongly opposed

28:22

to her decision to go to court. He

28:24

thought it would stir up trouble and that she should

28:27

handle it herself through prayer. Sometime

28:30

after the final court ruling, they separated.

28:33

Viola gave up her plans to establish

28:35

beauty franchises all over Canada

28:38

and started focusing on real estate, buying

28:40

and fixing up homes to rent them to black

28:42

families. Eventually,

28:44

Desmond closed her business and moved

28:47

first to go to business school in Montreal

28:49

and then to go to New York City to become

28:51

an entertainment agent. She

28:54

made ends meet as she got started in this business

28:56

by working as a cigarette girl at Small

28:58

Paradise Club and Arleam, which is

29:00

also where she had worked her way through her wig

29:03

making apprenticeship. In nineteen

29:05

fifty four, which was the year Desmond

29:07

moved to Montreal, Nova Scotia

29:09

repealed its legislation that allowed

29:12

segregation in public schools, although

29:14

the last segregated school in Nova Scotia

29:17

did not close until nineteen eighty

29:19

three. In nineteen fifty

29:21

nine, Nova Scotia passed the Fair Accommodation

29:24

Act, which prohibited discrimination

29:26

in places like movie theaters and restaurants.

29:29

Other civil rights legislation had already

29:31

been passed in other parts of Canada, and

29:34

additional laws followed as black people

29:36

in Canada advocated for equal rights.

29:39

Although racism and discrimination

29:41

continued, Many people

29:43

in the North End neighborhood, where Desmond had

29:45

spent most of her life were forced

29:47

out of their homes or otherwise displaced

29:49

during urban renewal projects in

29:51

the nineteen fifties and sixties, and

29:54

starting in nineteen sixty four, Africville

29:57

was systematically destroyed. Viola

29:59

does Men died on February seventh,

30:02

nineteen sixty five, at the age of fifty.

30:04

Her cause of death was reported as an intestinal

30:07

bleed. Although her death seemed

30:09

really sudden, members of her family had

30:11

noticed that she seemed unwell when

30:14

she returned to Halifax following

30:16

the death of her mother in nineteen sixty

30:18

three and of her father in nineteen sixty

30:20

four. In two thousand,

30:23

the National Film Board of Canada produced

30:25

a documentary called Journey to Justice,

30:28

which was focused on black people who had taken

30:30

civil rights cases to court from

30:32

the nineteen thirties through the nineteen fifties,

30:34

including Viola Desmond. That

30:37

same year, Viola's sister, Wanda Robson,

30:40

audited a course called the History

30:42

of Race Relations in North America

30:44

at what is now Cape Breton University.

30:47

The professor Dr Graham Reynolds mentioned

30:50

Viola Desmond during class, at

30:52

which point Wanda Robson said, that's

30:54

my sister. I

30:56

love that. I mean, I hate

30:58

that it's something their whole fan only had to go through,

31:01

but I love that. She was just sitting in class

31:03

and was like, that's my sister. Robson

31:06

decided to return to college and finish

31:08

her bachelor's degree at the age of seventy

31:10

three, graduating in two thousand four,

31:12

and she started pursuing a formal

31:15

apology for her sister. She

31:17

also wrote a book about their family,

31:20

including talking about her sister and her sister's

31:22

experience at the Roseland Theater. She called

31:24

that book Sister to Courage, and that came

31:26

out in Desmond

31:29

wound up getting more than an apology.

31:31

On April fift Lieutenant

31:34

Governor Mayn Francis issued a Royal

31:36

Prerogative of Mercy a k A.

31:38

A free pardon for Viola Desmond.

31:41

This took place at a ceremony in Halifax,

31:43

and Nova Scotia Premier Daryl Dexter issued

31:46

a formal apology as well. A

31:48

portrait of Desmond was unveiled a few

31:51

months later and was installed in the

31:53

Government House ballroom.

31:55

The same year all of this was happening, the

31:57

Viola Desmond Chair of Social Justice

32:00

was established at Cape Breton University.

32:03

Had Desmond lived to see this, she would have been

32:05

nine. In Viola

32:08

Desmond appeared on a Canadian postage

32:11

stamp. An exhibition on her

32:13

life and experiences opened at the Canadian

32:15

Museum for Human Rights in ten.

32:18

In sixteen, it was announced that Viola

32:20

Desmond would appear on Canadian currency.

32:23

The ten dollar note bearing her image

32:26

was released on November eighteen.

32:29

The book Viola Desmond, Her Life and Times

32:32

was published in twenty eighteen as well. This

32:34

was a collaboration between Dr Graham

32:36

Reynolds and Wander Robson, and

32:38

then also in twenty eighteen, Desmond

32:41

was named a National Historic Person

32:43

in Canada and became the subject

32:45

of a Google doodle. In February

32:48

of one, the government

32:50

repaid Viola Desmond's fine to her

32:52

sister Wanda. Adjusted for

32:54

inflation, that was one thousand dollars,

32:56

which Robson used to fund a scholarship

32:59

at Cape In University.

33:01

Wanda Robson died in February of

33:04

two at the age of Sometimes

33:08

Viola Desmond is described as the Canadian

33:10

Rosa Parks, often with the note

33:13

that Rosa Parks should really be called

33:15

the United States Viola Desmond,

33:17

since Desmond refused to leave her seat

33:19

at the movie theater nine years

33:21

before, Parks refused to leave her seat on a

33:23

Montgomery, Alabama city bus, and

33:26

these two women do have a lot of things in common.

33:28

They both made an in the moment

33:31

decision to push back against racism

33:33

by not leaving their seat. They

33:36

were both also petite and well dressed,

33:38

churchgoing women who were very well

33:40

respected in their communities, which is

33:43

one of the reasons why Rosa Parks

33:45

was asked to be a plaintiff in a test

33:47

case to try to overturn segregation

33:49

laws in the United States. But this

33:51

comparison really flattens both

33:54

women's experiences down to just one

33:56

moment of refusing to leave a seat,

33:58

when they both had full lives

34:00

of very different accomplishments outside

34:03

of that moment and it's aftermath. Also,

34:06

it erases the experiences of people

34:08

who also refused to give up their seat

34:10

before either Desmond or Parks,

34:12

including Carrie Best, who we talked about

34:15

in this episode, and Elizabeth

34:17

Jennings Graham, who we will have as an upcoming

34:19

Saturday classic. Yeah,

34:21

sometimes referred to as nineteenth

34:23

century Rosa Parks similarly kind

34:25

of a limited comparison as we

34:28

talked about in that episode, but we'll be

34:30

in folks as feeds. Do

34:33

you have a listener mail? I

34:35

do? This is from Brianna

34:37

or possibly Brianna. Uh

34:40

did not get a chance to write back

34:42

and ask, but uh,

34:46

this email begainst Dear Holly and Tracy.

34:48

I've been meaning to write this email for a while now,

34:51

so that what I originally was going to write has

34:53

turned into a couple of things. I'm entering my

34:55

fifth year in a PhD program setting

34:57

medieval literature, and it's been a rough year

34:59

with the pandemic hangover my students

35:01

and I have been experiencing, and also that

35:03

whole business of having to write a dissertation.

35:06

How do you even do that? Anyway?

35:09

For both Unearthed episodes,

35:11

I used the episodes as motivation

35:13

to finish a project, so

35:15

I just wanted to say thank you for those episodes.

35:18

I'm an archaeology nerd and I always

35:20

look forward to them. They're a good motivator

35:23

to get things done. I hope Tracy's

35:25

last negative experience putting the episodes

35:27

together didn't sour her on the experience

35:30

completely. I also wanted to especially

35:32

say thanks for including the paper on the medieval

35:35

hand grenade. I kept waiting for one of you to

35:37

make a Monty Python and the Holy Grail joke

35:39

when you were talking about it. I

35:41

included that paper in a footnote in

35:43

my chapter about alchemy because

35:45

the substances they found in the hand grenade

35:47

are also substances used by alchemists.

35:51

I don't suggest that the particular object

35:53

the writers identified as a hand grenade

35:55

was actually an alchemical vessel.

35:57

It seems to be the wrong shape, but it seems

36:00

logical to me that some of those vessels may have

36:02

been used for that purpose. I

36:04

did make a Monty Python joke, and the footnote

36:06

hopefully gets to stay in I

36:09

also wanted to share a pie recipe that's

36:11

popular in my family. Piemaking

36:13

is kind of a tradition in my family, and it's something

36:15

we take very seriously. I have vivid memories

36:18

of the back counter and my grandma's kitchen

36:20

being covered with six or eight

36:22

pies on holidays, and my aunt

36:24

and cousin have both worked in food service

36:26

and their pies are famous in our area

36:29

of Montana. When I worked at their restaurant

36:31

one day, this lady who wasn't from the area flagged

36:33

me down and asked me about the pies. She said,

36:36

kind of like she had caught me. Are your pies

36:38

holemade? I said yes, and she

36:41

added even the crust, and

36:43

I said yes, ma'am, everything is always homemade.

36:46

I'm including the recipe for Amish cream

36:48

pie. No idea where the name came from. I

36:50

don't think there's an Amish pedigree to it.

36:53

This one is really popular and will barely last

36:55

twenty four hours when it's on sale. I

36:57

wish I could make you one and ship it your way, but

36:59

pies travel very well. And you said

37:01

you're moving offices. So again, thanks for

37:03

the Unearthed episodes and for the podcasts,

37:06

Brianna uh and so

37:08

we will stick this pie recipe

37:11

on our social media. It's very easy, though,

37:13

because you just mixed together three quarters cup

37:15

of sugar, two and a half cups of half

37:18

and half, a quarter teaspoon of salt, three

37:20

and a half tablespoons of cornstarch heaping

37:23

or packed and cook that until

37:25

thick, and then add in half a cup of brown sugar,

37:27

half a cup of butter, and a tea spoon of vanilla

37:30

that goes into a pie shehell sprinkle with cinnamon.

37:32

Bake at three fifty for fifteen or twenty

37:34

minutes until it's bubbly around the edge, and then

37:37

you let it cool off, store in the fridge. That

37:39

sounds really delicious. I went

37:41

down a little rabbit hole about

37:43

whether it may or may not be Amish

37:47

in origin. There are a whole lot of Amish

37:49

pies um,

37:52

this specific one did not find

37:54

a reference to. I know there are some foods

37:56

that are described as Amish that have nothing to

37:59

do uh with Amish

38:01

people at all. And just kind of got it fixed

38:04

with that moniker um

38:06

because of feelings, basically, So

38:09

I thought about whether to put a holy

38:12

hand grenade joke uh

38:14

in the Unearthed episode we talked about the

38:16

medieval hand grenade, and I wound up not doing it.

38:18

So I'm glad I got a chance to just read this email

38:20

well where it is in there. I kept

38:23

thinking about that scene and money

38:25

Python and the Holy Grail as I was reading that

38:27

part of the unearthed stuff. UM

38:30

never fear. That whole experience did

38:32

not sour me on doing Unearthed.

38:34

It was really what was going on in

38:36

the world in that moment that made it

38:38

a frustrating Unearthed process, not

38:41

the Unearthed thing itself. I

38:44

think regardless of what I had been working

38:46

on, it would have been challenging given

38:49

the amount of chaos that was currently

38:51

happening at that moment. Uh. Speaking

38:53

of chaos, we've also gotten a few tweets

38:56

from people who point out that the word

38:58

meaning chaos in Italian is pronounced

39:01

cows approximately. Um.

39:05

I didn't get to that in my frantic

39:08

cramming of Italian on duo lingo

39:10

before we went to Italy, So

39:14

thanks to folks who have tweeted about

39:16

that. If you would like to send

39:18

us a note about this or any other podcast where at

39:20

History podcast that I Heart radio dot

39:22

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39:24

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39:27

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39:29

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39:31

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