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Viola Desmond's Influence On Black Women

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Equality is the state of being equal in rights, status and opportunities. Only a few decades ago, equality however did not apply to all. At the time, women were given a very low status. Men were the dominant gender and did not consider women as people. If being a woman wasn’t hard enough, having dark skin made it worse. Many black people of both genders were stripped of their rights and dealt with racial discrimination. Viola Desmond is a perfect example of one of many black women. In mine and countless others opinions, I believe that Viola Desmond was a strong, independent and inspiring person. She created history by sticking up for herself and numerous women around the world. She is a great influence for today’s youth and many generations …show more content…

Unbeknownst to her, that night would be the most important one of her life. It all started when her car broke down while driving to a business meeting in Sydney, Nova Scotia. She was told that repair would take a while. She decided to stay so she got a hotel room and decided to watch a movie at the Roseland Theatre. She requested a ticket for floor seats, however, she was unaware that the ticket seller gave her balcony tickets instead. The main floor seats were reserved for white people and the balcony seats for the black. Desmond made her way to the floor seats entrance where the ticket-taker refused admission and told her she had balcony seats. She thought they had made a mistake and went back to the cashier to exchange the ticket for a floor seat. Peggy Melanson, the cashier, refused, saying, “I 'm sorry but I 'm not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people.” Desmond then realised that by ‘you people’ she meant people of dark skin which included her. Now furious, she made the decision of sitting on the main floor. She was confronted by the manager who told her to leave immediately. She refused and said she was sold the ticket, asked for it to be exchanged and was willing to pay the full price. After her refusal to leave, the police were called and she was arrested, injuring her hip and knee in the process. She remained in a cell overnight, feeling outraged and terrified all at once. In

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