A celebration Sunday in Dartmouth to observe the birthday of civil rights icon Viola Desmond also highlighted her contributions to the Black business community in Nova Scotia.
A crowd of around 200 people gathered for the event on what would have been Desmond’s 111th birthday. It was dubbed Being Black and Beautiful in Downtown Dartmouth and was hosted by the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission in collaboration with the Black Beauty Culture Association.
“We’re together celebrating being our own kind of beautiful,” said Samantha Dixon Slawter, co-founder of the association.
Desmond rose to national prominence for challenging racial segregation after being arrested for refusing to leave a “whites-only” area at a New Glasgow movie theatre in 1946. The theatre was segregated at that time, with Black patrons relegated to the balcony while floor seating was reserved for whites.
But she was also a trained beautician who started her practice specifically to address the absence of hair and skincare products for Black women. She was in New Glasgow because she was on a business trip for her successful hair cosmetics company.
Slawter said Desmond’s legacy as a businesswoman is just as important as her activism.
“Black people, we had to actually in some cases we had to do without a beautician. We had to do our own hair. And Viola came up with teaching beauty culture, especially to Black women and for Black women,” she said. “She actually changed culture for us.”
Through the Black Beauty Culture Association, an organization with the stated goal of encouraging equality and equity in the beauty industry, Slawter said she is honouring an under-explored aspect of Desmond’s legacy.
Mary Lukindo, an apprentice under the Black Beauty Culture Hair Innovator program, said that prior to working for the Black Beauty Culture Association and learning from Slawter, she learned in school about Desmond’s activism, but was unaware of her work as a beautician.
That aspect of Desmond’s life made her more identifiable in Lukindo’s eyes, she said.
“She really represents what most Black people are,” Lukindo said. “We are multifaceted, we are passionate, we are talented.”
Tim Rissesco is the CEO of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, which helped organize Sunday’s event.
“With working with the Black community, we can encourage other Black entrepreneurs to come to downtown Dartmouth as a place to do business, and we also want to make sure that everybody feels welcome in downtown,” Rissesco said.
After Desmond’s arrest, the Halifax businesswoman was left in jail for 12 hours before being fined $26 for tax evasion. The fine, based on the one-cent difference in tax paid for floor and balcony tickets, was the only way local authorities could legally justify her jailing. Desmond, who died in 1965, was given a posthumous apology and pardon for her arrest by the province in April 2010.
She was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2017 and a $10 bill bearing her likeness was issued in November 2018.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.
