whimsicaldimples

[whimsicaldimples]

Happy Halloween! (its been a hot minute)

[whimsicaldimples]

I think Ponyo should've spent more time in this form

[whimsicaldimples]

Too lazy to set up my tablet. Painted my sister's cat, Princess Bonk.

[whimsicaldimples]

[whimsicaldimples]

I had stomach flu for most of this past week so enjoy this inktober drawing I never posted

[whimsicaldimples]

Viola Desmond was a businesswoman and civil rights activist. Desmond grew up in a large household with a Black  father and a White mother who were well respected in the Black community of Halifax.

Desmond trained as a beautician in Canada and the United States, eventually opening Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax. Her business catered to the Black community who were underserved by the beauty industry.

Eventually, Desmond opened the Desmond School of Beauty Culture to train Black women from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec for careers in the beauty industry. She also created a line of beauty products catering to Black women.

In 1946 Desmond’s car broke down in New Glasgow, NS, while she was travelling for work. She decided to see a movie while she waited for it to be repaired. Desmond asked to purchase a ticket for the main floor but was only offered balcony tickets (which was where POC were made to sit). She offered to pay the price difference but the cashier refused because of Desmond’s race so she took her balcony ticket and sat in a seat on the main floor anyways. 

The manager of the theatre, Hugh MacNeil, tried to kick her out but she showed her ticket and explained that she had offered to pay for one on the main floor and had been denied. The police were called. They dragged Desmond out of the theatre injuring her knee and hip in the process. She was put in jail overnight.

In the morning she was charged with attempting to defraud the provincial government because of a 1 cent tax difference between balcony and main floor tickets. She was not given any legal representation or told her rights. The judge forced her to pay a 26 dollar fine ($6 went to the theatre owner).

The community rallied around her, covering her case in newspapers and fundraising through the NSCAAP to cover any future legal costs related to the case. Desmond’s White lawyer chose to file a civil suit against the theatre instead of filing to overturn the verdict and failed.

In 1954, segregation legally ended in Nova Scotia. Desmond moved to Montreal and then New York where she passed away in 1965. Desmond’s sister, Wanda Robson, worked hard to raise awareness for her sister’s story.

In 2010 Desmond was granted a free pardon by the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, and a public apology from the Premier of Nova Scotia. In 2018, Desmond became the first Canadian woman featured on a Canadian bank note.

In 2021 the government of Nova Scotia awarded Robson an adjusted amount of Desmond’s fine which totaled 1000 dollars. She used it to fund a scholarship at Cape Breton University.

More information and photos can be found on her page on the Canadian Encyclopedia.

[whimsicaldimples]

Mathieu Da Costa was the first Black person to set foot in what would become Canada. He was a Free Man who worked as an interpreter. Records on his life are kind of spotty like many historical figures from centuries ago. He spoke French, Dutch, and Portuguese. He eventually ended up for the French. There are documents tying him to Pierre Dugua de Mons. Some historians have speculated that he may have worked for Samuel de Champlain as well. He served as an interpreter between Europeans and Indigenous people. He is thought to have used a pidgin Basque that was known to Indigenous people on the East coast due to centuries of Basque fisherman fishing in the waters off the coast. Its possible that he also learned the languages of the Mi’kmaq and Innu peoples of the region.

More information can be found on his page on The Canadian Encyclopedia.

[whimsicaldimples]

Loved their ending

[whimsicaldimples]

Violet King was a Canadian lawyer. She was the first Black Canadian to recieve a law degree from the U of A, the first Black person admitted to the Bar in Alberta (1954), and the first Black woman to become a lawyer in Canada.

Her grandparents moved to Alberta in 1911 from Oklahoma. One year later the Canadian government limited Black immigrants to the prairies to 1000 per year.

King taught piano lessons to support herself through university. She belonged to a women’s group that met to discuss politics and history called the Blue Stocking Club. During university she was VP of the Students’ Union.

In 1959 her brother, Ted King (also pictured) unsuccessfully challenged a Calgary motel’s discriminatory policies. Violet King became a criminal lawyer. During her articling year she worked on five murder trials (that’s a lot).

She eventually moved to Ottawa to work for the department of Citizenship and Immigration where she remained for seven years.

In 1963 she moved to the United States to work for the YMCA. While there she married Godfrey C. Henry with whom she had one child, Jo-Anne Henry.

She was posthumously inducted into the National YMCA Hall of Fame in 1998, sixteen years after she passed away from cancer.

For more information and photos check out her page on The Canadian Encyclopedia.

[whimsicaldimples]

☆ Eternia ballroom dance champs  ☆

[whimsicaldimples]

[whimsicaldimples]

This was supposed to be a gif but it kept saying it was too large no matter how small I made the image size so here we are.

[whimsicaldimples]

@helpful-tiara Happy birthday!

[whimsicaldimples]

💗Colourful gf x Goth gf🖤

[whimsicaldimples]

[whimsicaldimples]

Happy New Year! 

[whimsicaldimples]

Thank you @helpful-tiara for helping me pick out a new tablet!