Sister to Courage — Stories from the World of Viola Desmond, Canada’s Rosa Parks

by Wanda Robson • photos • 182 pages

BELOVED STORYTELLER Wanda Robson of North Sydney is a sister of Viola Desmond, civil rights icon and pioneer African-Nova Scotian businesswoman. In 1946 Viola Desmond refused to sit in the blacks-only section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow, and was carried out, jailed, and fined. Her stand for social justice was nine years before Rosa Parks, and is not to be forgotten. (Included here is her posthumous 2010 Royal Grant of Free Pardon, and the apology from the Nova Scotia government.)
    With honesty and wit, Wanda takes us inside the world she shared with Viola and ten other brothers and sisters. Through touching and often hilarious stories, she traces the roots of courage and ambition, the good fun and dignity of this big, big-hearted family.
    Viola shines through as tough and compassionate, a defender of family and a successful entrepreneur whose momentum was blocked by racism. In revealing her own failings and growth, Wanda gives us the story of three courageous women: Viola, Wanda, and their mother Gwendolyn Davis.