Viola Desmond pardoned
Posted Apr 15, 2010 02:51:43 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Nova Scotia woman who was jailed in the 1940s for sitting in the ‘whites only’ section of a movie theatre has been given an official pardon from the Nova Scotia government.
“It’s based on innocence, it recognizes that a conviction was made it error,” says Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter. “There can be no doubt that that a grievous error was made.”
Viola Desmond, who died in 1965, was fined and jailed in 1946 for sitting in the white person’s section of the Roseland movie theatre in New Glasgow.
Lieutenant Governor Mayann Francis presided over the ceremony and exercised the Royal Prerogative of Mercy to grant a Free Pardon to Desmond.
Desmond’s 83-year-old sister, Wanda Robson, was there to accept the apology. She spoke about the many changes that have happened over the years and thanked the young people who continue to struggle for justice.
Robson was asked what Viola would’ve thought about the pardon.
“Mom and dad would be so proud, that is what she would think,” said Robson. “Mom and Dad would be so proud.”
Minister of African-Nova Scotian Affairs Percy Paris says Desmond’s act was not against the law.
“Viola Desmond violated an unwritten law, a law that at that time was common public policy,” says Paris.
He compared Desmond to Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus for a white passenger.
