To the editor,
Dear friends:
I want to thank the Black Gala Homecoming Committee and the Town of New Glasgow for the remarkable two days in honour of Viola Desmond. It was a moving and important experience, to witness the unveiling of a Commemorative bench in the Africentric Heritage Park, the Heritage Interpretive Panel at Laurel Park, the portrait of Viola Desmond in Council Chambers, Town Hall, along with the framed handwritten notice of conviction beside the Royal Pardon issued in April 2010. All these items will have a permanent place in New Glasgow buildings and will help to keep alive the events surrounding Nov. 8, 1946, the day Viola Desmond refused to give up her seat in the whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre.
What might have continued as a negative example of segregation has been turned through the determination of the people of New Glasgow into a lasting positive example of the fight for social justice in Canada. For years to come, our schools will tell the story of a tiny woman carried out of a movie theatre, jailed and convicted unjustly – for no other reason save that she was black. And these evidences of that event, carefully placed throughout the town of New Glasgow, create a vital teaching tool for which we can all be grateful.
I want to thank specifically some of the people who made the event possible: Premier Darrell Dexter, Mayor Barrie E. MacMillan, Lt.-Gov. Mayann E. Francis, National Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Justice Minister Ross Landry, councillors Clyde Fraser and Henderson Paris, Bill Paris and Bev Bonvit of the Africentric Heritage Park Committee, Crystal States and Elizabeth Paris of the Black Homecoming Gala Committee, Communications Officer Kimberley Dickson and her staff of summer students, Kirsten, Nicole, Anna, Cheryl.
But the thanks and praise does not end there. On the next day, Mayor Barrie MacMillan hosted the launch of “Sister to Courage,” Wanda Robson’s new book of “Stories from the World of Viola Desmond, Canada’s Rosa Parks.”
It was an honour to watch these ceremonies unfold.
Ronald Caplan and Sharon Hope Irwin
Publishers of Breton Books
