Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged

Stranded in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia by car trouble, Viola Desmond — a Black businesswoman who ran her own beauty salon — decides to catch a movie while she waits. She takes a seat on the main floor, only to be told by an usher that she must move to the balcony, the section reserved for Black patrons. Viola offers to pay the higher ticket price for her seat, but theatre staff refuse and call the police, who drag her out and hold her overnight.

Fined for "refusing to pay the proper ticket price" rather than for her race directly, Viola appeals the ruling with the support of Black community groups. Though the appeal fails, her stand became a rallying point in the fight against Canadian segregation, which was formally outlawed in the late 1950s. Jody Nyasha Warner's picture book tells the true story now honored on Canada's ten-dollar bill.