Theatre in honour of Viola Desmond opens in Halifax

Idea envisioned by Empowered Women Blossom, a new branch of Hope Blooms

Gertrude Jefferies remembers she was in Grade 2 when she was sent home with a note from school.

On that piece a paper, it read that Viola Desmond and husband, Jack, had opened a new barber shop and hair salon on Gottingen Street in Halifax.

Desmond was announcing she was starting a club for the neighbourhood girls, where it would cost $1 for a wash and curl, then 25 cents for a touchup every week after.

“It was a blessing growing up to have Viola in our lives," Jefferies told a crowd gathered Sunday.

“She was a lovely woman, always full of smiles. I can remember there was always lots of laughter in the salon.”

It was an intimate picture of Desmond, the African Nova Scotia woman remembered in history for standing up to the segregation she faced after purchasing a movie ticket at theatre in New Glasgow back in 1946.

And exactly 71 years to the date of Desmond’s historic protest not to move from an area reserved for whites-only, around fifty people huddled under blankets and bundled in winter coats Sunday evening, seated in rows before the unveiling of the Viola Desmond Outdoor Theatre in Warrington Park.

The project was envisioned by Empowered Women Blossom, a new branch of Hope Blooms and comprised of older women from the north end community.

“It was a true community collaboration,” Hope Blooms founder Jessie Jollymore said of the new theatre.

Jollymore said the idea came to life after numerous community suppers and meetings, which resulted in a final vote to see a new theatre installed and named after none other than Desmond.

The plan for the screen, located on the side of the recently opened Hope Blooms greenhouse, is to screen a film or documentary every week for next spring and summer, Jollymore said.

Support for the project came from Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage.

Despite the nearly belowzero temperatures Sunday evening, the crowd watched a screening of, ‘Long Road to Justice —The Viola Desmond Story,’ preceded by a moment of silence in Desmond’s honour.

“Today, as one of those girls who trotted up there every week to get her hair done I just want to say thank you, Viola Desmond,” Jefferies said.

People watch a short film on the life of Viola Desmond at the launch of an outdoor theatre in her name at Murray Warrington Park on Sunday evening in Halifax.