Viola’s sister tells
the people what Viola thought after she was in trial and charged for tax
evasion,
“The day she came back from the court, knowing she had lost
the case, she was very disappointed. A person like my sister never liked to
lose. A person like my sister, who was such a hard worker, had always been told
if you do hard work, you’re going to win. If you’re Black or Negro or whatever,
you’re going to work hard, get that scholarship and win. We forgot about our
colour and educated ourselves. She felt that she should have won the case, and
she was bitterly disappointed” (Backhouse 1999, 267).
The Clarion, the New
Glasgow newspaper run by Black citizens stated,
“The court did not hesitate to place the blame for the whole
sordid affair where it belonged. […] It is gratifying to know that such a shoddy
attempt to hide behind the law has been recognized as such by the highest Court
in our Province. We feel that owners and managers of places of amusement will
now realize that such practices are recognized by those in authority for what
they are, - cowardly devices to persecute innocent people because of their
outmoded racial biases” (Backhouse 1999, 268).
Both Viola’s sister and The Clarion see how the white courts
did not bring up the fact that Viola was a Black women, and denied to relate
any of her charges based on the colour of her skin. She was charged for
something no white individual would have done based on the fact that she is a
black woman and was not permitted to sit in the main floor seating of a movie
theatre.
Carrie Best also
replies to what took place in the court room and the response to the racism in
Nova Scotia,
“We do have many of the
privileges which are denied our southern brothers, but we often wonder if the
kind of segregation we receive here is not more cruel in the very subtlety of
its nature […]
True, we are not forced into
separate parts of public conveyances, nor are we forced to drink from separate faucets
or use separate washrooms, but we are often refused meals in restaurants and
beds in hotels, with no good reason.
Nowhere do we encounter signs
that read ‘No Coloured’ or the more diplomatic little paste boards which say ‘Select
Clientele’, but at times it might be better. At least much consequent embarrassment
might be save for all concerned” (Backhouse 1999, 269).
Viola was very disappointed,
humiliated and disgusted by the Canadian law and the white people who caused
this on to her. Viola became stuck and was unsure of how to move on….