Biography of Canadian Civil Rights Icon Viola Desmond

She’s long been compared to Rosa Parks, and  now late civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond will appear on Canada’s $10 banknote. Known for refusing to sit in the segregated section of a movie theater, Desmond will grace  the note, starting in 2018. She will replace Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, who will be featured on a higher-value bill instead. Desmond was chosen to appear on the currency after the Bank of Canada  requested submissions for iconic Canadian women to be featured on the bill. News that she was selected came several months after the announcement  that slave-turned-abolitionist Harriet Tubman would appear on the $20 bill in the United States. â€Å"Today is about recognizing the incalculable contribution that all women have had and continue to have in shaping Canada’s story,† Canadian Minister of Finance Bill Morneau said of Desmond’s selection in December 2016. â€Å"Viola Desmond’s own story reminds all of us that big change can start with moments of dignity and bravery. She represents courage, strength and determination—qualities we should all aspire to every day.† It was a long road to get Desmond on the bill. The Bank of Canada received 26,000 nominations and eventually cut that number down to just five finalists. Desmond edged out Mohawk poet E. Pauline Johnson, engineer Elizabeth MacGill, runner Fanny Rosenfeld and suffragette Idola Saint-Jean. But Americans and Canadians alike have admitted they knew little about the race relations pioneer before the landmark decision to feature her on Canadian currency. When Desmond beat out the competition, however, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called her selection a â€Å"fantastic choice.† He described Desmond as a â€Å"businesswoman, community leader, and courageous fighter against racism.† So, why were her contributions to society so important that she will be immortalized on the nation’s currency? Get acquainted with Desmond with this biography. A Pioneer Who Gave Back Desmond was born Viola Irene Davis on July 6, 1914, in Halifax,  Nova Scotia. She grew up middle class, and her parents, James Albert and Gwendolin Irene Davis, were highly involved in Halifax’s black community.   When she came of age, Desmond initially pursued a teaching career. But as a child, Desmond developed an interest in cosmetology due to the dearth of black haircare products available in her area. The fact that her father worked as a barber must have inspired her as well.   Halifax’s beauty schools were off limits to black women, so Desmond traveled to Montreal to attend the  Field Beauty Culture School, one of the rare institutions that accepted black students. She also traveled  to  the United States to get the expertise she sought. She even trained with Madam  C.J. Walker, who became a millionaire for pioneering beauty treatments and products for African Americans. Desmond’s tenacity paid off when she received a diploma from Apex College of Beauty Culture and Hairdressing in Atlantic City, N.J. When Desmond received the training she needed, she opened a salon of her own, Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax, in 1937. She also opened up a beauty school, Desmond School of Beauty Culture, because she didn’t want other black women to have to endure the hurdles she had to receive training. Roughly 15 women graduated from her school each year, and they left equipped with the know-how to open their own salons and provide work for black women in their communities, as Desmond’s students came from throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec. Like Desmond had, these women had been rejected from all-white beauty schools. Following in the footsteps of Madam  C.J. Walker, Desmond also launched a beauty line called Vis Beauty Products. Desmond’s love life overlapped with her professional aspirations. She and her husband, Jack Desmond, launched a hybrid barbershop and beauty salon together.   Taking a Stand Nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man, Desmond refused to sit in the black section of a movie theater in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She took the stand that would make her a hero in the black community after her car broke down on Nov. 8, 1946, during a trip she took to sell beauty products. Informed that fixing her car would take a day because the parts to do so weren’t readily available, Desmond decided to see a film called â€Å"The Dark Mirror† at New Glasgow’s Roseland Film Theatre. She purchased a ticket at the box office, but when she entered the theater, the usher told her that she had a balcony ticket, not a ticket for the main floor. So, Desmond, who was nearsighted and needed to sit downstairs to see,  went back to the ticket booth to correct the situation. There, the cashier said she wasnt allowed to sell downstairs tickets to blacks. The black businesswoman refused to sit in the balcony and returned to the main floor. There, she was roughly forced out of her seat, arrested and held overnight in jail. Because it cost 1 cent more for a main floor ticket than for a balcony ticket, Desmond was charged with tax evasion. For the offense, she paid a $20 fine and $6 in court fees to be released from custody.   When she arrived home, her husband advised her to drop the matter, but the leaders at her place of worship, Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, urged her to fight for her rights. The Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People offered its support as well, and Desmond hired a lawyer, Frederick Bissett, to represent her in court. The lawsuit he filed against Roseland Theatre proved unsuccessful  because Bissett argued his client was wrongfully accused of tax evasion instead of pointing out that she was discriminated against based on race. Unlike the United States, Jim Crow wasn’t the law of the land in Canada. So, Bissett may have triumphed had he pointed out that this private movie theater attempted to enforce segregated seating. But just because Canada lacked  Jim Crow didn’t mean blacks there eluded racism, which is why Afua Cooper, black Canadian studies professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, told Al Jazeera that Desmond’s case should be viewed through a Canadian lens. â€Å"I think its about time Canada recognizes its black citizens, people who have suffered,† Cooper said. Canada has its own homegrown racism, anti-black racism, and anti-African racism that it has to deal with without comparing it to the US. We live here. We don’t live in America. Desmond lived in Canada.   The court case marked the first known legal challenge to segregation presented by a black woman in Canada, according to the Bank of Canada. Although Desmond lost, her efforts inspired black Nova Scotians to demand equal treatment and put a spotlight on racial injustice in Canada. Justice Delayed Desmond didn’t see justice in her lifetime. For fighting racial discrimination, she received a great deal of negative attention. This likely put a strain on her marriage, which ended in divorce.  Desmond eventually relocated to Montreal to attend business school. She later moved to New York, where she died alone of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage on Feb. 7, 1965, at age 50. This courageous woman wasn’t vindicated until April 14, 2010, when the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia issued an official pardon. The pardon recognized that the conviction was wrongful, and Nova Scotia government officials apologized for Desmond’s treatment. Two years later, Desmond was featured on a  Canadian Post stamp. The beauty entrepreneur’s sister, Wanda Robson, has been a consistent advocate for her  and even wrote a book about Desmond called â€Å"Sister to Courage.† When Desmond was chosen to grace Canada’s $10 bill, Robson said, â€Å"It’s a big day to have a woman on a banknote, but it’s an especially big day to have your big sister on a banknote. Our family is extremely proud and honored.† In addition to Robson’s book, Desmond has been featured in the childrens book â€Å"Viola Desmond Wont Be Budged.† Also, Faith Nolan recorded a song about her. But Davis is not the only civil rights pioneer to be the subject of a recording. Stevie Wonder and rap group Outkast have recorded songs about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, respectively. A documentary about Desmonds life, â€Å"Journey to Justice,† debuted in 2000. Fifteen years later,  the government recognized the inaugural Nova Scotia Heritage Day in Desmonds  honor. In 2016, the businesswoman was  featured in a Historica Canada Heritage Minute, a quick dramatized look  at key events in Canadian history. Actress  Kandyse McClure starred as Desmond.

Early Education Is Important For Children - 939 Words

â€Å"In Australia, 61.5% of children of aged 3-4 attend early childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs. Children’s experiences within these programs vary widely and impact directly on educational wellbeing and social development.† Said Tayler, a professor from Australia. In my opinion, early education is important for children, especially in preschool. There are several reasons. The first one is that early education can cultivate children s specific ability of decisive significance. The second one is early education can improve the learning efficiency. Moreover, early education can promote children s brain development. However, some people do not think early education is important. It has some negative, for example, hinder the children know the real world. In China, more and more parents let children learn some skills such as playing a musical instrument. Some parents also like to compare their child with others. If the child learns fewer skills than others, paren ts will let the child study more. I think this false direction of early education will lead children to a stressful development road. We should not only ask children have good grades or numbers of skills. On the contrary, we should help children find out their real talents and improve learning ability. Therefore, good early education is important for children. First reason is early education can cultivate children s specific ability of decisive significance .Some people said that if you do not start playing theShow MoreRelatedDevelopment Of Exceptional And Special Needs Children Essay1672 Words   |  7 PagesThe early childhood sector is increasing rapidly across the Caribbean. 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Many people never pay attention to the process of child development, but the details are most important to become successful. In our society, the way someone develops during the early years of their life will have a huge effect on their academic success. For this reason, I believe we shouldRead MoreFor The Past Two Decades, Canadian Population Is Increasingly1439 Words   |  6 Pagesdifferences in Canadian diverse society. Especially, children have experie nced more challenges due to the current age of cultural pluralism because they are born from refugee or immigration’s families. Therefore, early childhood education is responsible to create multicultural practices that benefits young children to their cognitive and social developments, and protects them from bias and discrimination. Multicultural education provides enormous merits to children social and emotional developments. FirstlyRead MoreEarly Childhood Education Essay875 Words   |  4 PagesEarly childhood education is one of the most important policy topics out there. Research has proven that the early years in childhood is a critical period for opportunity to develop a child’s full potential; as well as form academic, social, and cognitive skills that determine not only success in school but also their entire life (The White House). The right to a free, public education is guaranteed to all children in the United States. Early education is voluntary, and therefore some children areRead MoreDevelopmentally Appropriate Practice1675 Words   |  7 PagesDevelopmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and Early Childhood Education (ECE). Although ECE has been around since the creation of kindergarten in the 1800’s, the decade of the 1980’s was an important period for ECE. â€Å"By the 198 0’s, meta-analysis of the well-designed US projects offered compelling evidence on the positive outcomes of [early childhood education and intervention]† (Woodhead, 2007). Therefore, there was much pressure to improve the state of education, including ECE. â€Å"The decade of the 1980’s

Moving to United States Free Essays

Moving to United States The most memorable event in my life was when we moved out from Russia to a country that changes lives and is known as a dream land called the United States of America. When we sat on the airplane that was going toward the United States in August of 2004, we knew our lives are going to be changed in the way we always wanted them to. After twelve years of not going to school and being discriminated by Russian citizens, this moving to a new country was the most amazing, not just in my life generally, but for my entire family as well. We will write a custom essay sample on Moving to United States or any similar topic only for you Order Now The war started in Kabul, Afghanistan in July of 1994; moving to Russia was the only choice for my family to be safe even though we knew we would face a lot of difficulties. I was only four years old when my father and my mother took me the youngest in the family at that time, three of my brothers, and two of my sisters to Moscow, Russia. On our way to the train that was going toward Russia, we lost my fourteen year old brother. This accident almost stopped us from moving out from the country, but my father made the right choice either to look for his lost son or lose all of us, so we had to move on. When we finally arrived to Moscow, Russia in August of 1994, we did not have any money or a place to stay. My father remembered that he had a friend who had been living in Russia for twenty years already; maybe he could help us out for now to find a place to stay. He called him within three hours of our presence to Moscow and asked him if he could come and help us out. After an hour, he arrived, and he took us to his house and he was very happy of meeting my father after twenty years. We stayed at his house for three months. Four months later my father borrowed some money from his friend, and we opened our small business where we were selling leather jackets just to make some kind of money to eat and pay the rent. Nine months later, my father tried to take us to school, but they did not accept us because we did not have any documentation that would allow us to go to school because we were illegal in the country. It was very hard and difficult for our father to see us not going to school and not getting the education that we needed for our futures; we even barely could go outside because of the citizens of that country would discriminate you and judge you by your skin color. One day my father went to the immigration center in Moscow and asked them if we could apply for citizenship or some kind of documentation that would allow his children to go to school. The Russian immigration center denied the request at the time because of some private reason that they did not want to tell my father. Five years passed and we still could not go to public schools or be legal in the country. My father tried it again and the Russian immigration center gives us the documentation that would allow us to live in the country but it did not allow us to go to school. Then one morning my older brother talked to my father, and he claimed that he does not want to live in Russia anymore without education and that he wants to move to Holland with his friends. My father was very upset and at the same time lost that he is right for how long are we going to be living like this. After three years of my brothers moving to Holland, my father decides to move to Sweden because that was the only country at that time that would accept immigrants and give them the right documentation to live in the country. It was very difficult for him to leave us in the country where the danger was around us every day, but he knew he must do something for his children to be able to go to school and live like the normal children do. In August of 1999 he arrived in Sweden, and the Swedish immigration center gave him temporary documentation to live in the country legally until they decide if he is eligible for citizenship. Very excited and happy our father called us and told us that he got the documentation to be legal in the country of Sweden. When we heard that, we thought we going to move to Sweden very soon and that we going to be together, but the Swedish immigration center asked us to wait a couple of years then we might move in. We waited two years and nothing happened, our father was very sad and confused about what he could do now. At the same time, he knew there was nothing he could do; it was all up to the immigration center of Sweden to decide our future. Then one day, it was our Holliday called Eid, my mother had her friend with her children over at our house to have a dinner with us, and she told her that they are about to move to United States the next month. My mother was very happy and excited for her friend and asked her how she did it. My mother told her that my fathers had been in Sweden for five years now and still nothing was happening. My mother’s friend told her she needed to apply at the United States immigration center that was located in Moscow and try to see if we would get accepted. Then the next day January of 2004 my mother and I went to the United States immigration center, and we applied for the permanent residence ship to any state. After two months, we received a call from the United States immigration center that we are scheduled for an interview; we all were very excited and happy that we might move to United States, to a country that is known as the dream land and freedom. When we give our interview the person who was interviewing us asked us why we wanted to go to the United States. The answer was very simple to all of my family; it was education, freedom from being discriminated because of your skin color, and just to live in peace. After our interview, he told us, â€Å"I will see you guys in America† That moment was one of the best moments in my live and I do not think I could ever forget it. We all cried, and he told us it will take three months for them to do our paper work. When we received our plane tickets to New York, we were amazed and very excited about moving to a country where we never imagined moving in to. It was Sunday morning when we arrived in New York City International Airport. It was very hard for us to believe that this was really happening to us we were in America, a place where no one hates you, a place where they will allow you to go to school, and you can be who you are. Our lives changed after arriving in San Diego California, good things started to happen in with us. When we arrived here, there was a very kind gentleman at the airport who met us. He introduced himself as our case worker. We did not know what a case worker really meant, but what we did know that he was the only person who could help us. That very kind gentleman who was our case worker took us to school and got us an apartment. Two years later we found our brother after thirteen years who got lost at the time of our moving from Afghanistan. People have been saying that the United States of America can change people’s lives, and they were right. It changed our lives, and it is a great country where everything is possible if you try. My entire family and I always had hope in our hearts; we knew nothing can be done if you do not try and if you do not have hope for a better future. How to cite Moving to United States, Essay examples