A Dalhousie professor says Viola Desmond was a true trail blazer.
Desmond was chosen to be the first woman on a Canadian banknote, replacing John A. MacDonald on the $10 bill.
Desmond decided to sit in the whites only section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow (NS) in 1946 and was arrested.
She was fined $20.
After that she went on to be a civil rights activist.
Professor Isaac Saney, a senior instructor of black studies at Dal; says Desmond’s act of defiance was a singular act of courage.
He hopes her story will help teach people the unsanitized version of Canadian history included slavery and institutionalized racism.