After the Trial.. The Humiliation

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….