Only 65 years ago, a woman named Viola Desmond was kicked out of a movie theatre in New Glasgow for sitting in the main floor section, an area reserved for white people. She was offered the chance to go sit on the balcony, the area for black people, but refused and instead was kicked out and given a fine.
When she was kicked out of the theatre, her hip was injured. While discussing what happened with the doctor who looked at her injured hip, she decided to take the issue to court, feeling there was a racist seating policy in place at the theatre. The actions that she took helped spread the fact that Canada still was segregated and changed public opinion on segregated seating. By 1954, eight years after this incident and she won the court case on a technicality, all segregated seating laws were gone.
Viola Desmond is compared to Rosa Parks because of her action of sitting in an area where only white people were allowed to sit down. Although just sitting in an area seems like a small action, each one inspired law changes in Canada and in the U.S.A.
No comments:
Post a Comment