Roseland Theater Case Summary

After the trial, Desmond’s sentencing reiterates the institutional racism of the courts, which adamantly enforced the tax violations related to the purchase of the move theater ticket. The detailed sentencing of the court defines the rejection of accusations of enforcing Jim Crow laws, which were bolstered by the judgment of tax evasion for the purchase of the tickets. These legalities define the specific tax codes that were violated in the perspective of the court:

The statute based the rate of the amusement tax upon the price of the ticket. The Roseland Theater’s ticket prices were forty cents for downstairs seats, and thirty cents for upstairs seats. These prices included a tax of three cents on the downstairs tickets, and two cents on the upstairs. The ticket issued to Viola Desmond cost thirty cents, of which two cents would be forwarded to the public coffers, Since she had insisted on sitting downstairs, she was one cent short on tax.

Certainly, the case exposed the underhanded method of tax evasion as a means in which to punish Desmond for violating the invisible cods of conduct in the private sector venue of the Roseland Theater. The legal judgment of owing “one cent” for a tax violation was the ultimate decision of the court. This “echo” of the Jim Crow laws defines the underlying resistance to desegregation in Nova Scotia, which made an impact on the social consciousness of the people. The judgment of the courts in relation to the purchase of a ticket, which would eventually galvanize the Civil Rights Movement in Canada. These factors define the sentencing of the Desmond case as another means in which a racially motivated legal institution would lay the foundations for Civil Rights actions against these underhanded methods of legal enforcement of racism in