Bunchland

Viola Desmond, Canadian Civil Rights pioneer

Viola Desmond went to the movie theatre in 1946 where there were different sections for white people and black. Since she couldn’t see from the balcony, the area that the theatre designated for black people, she instead sat on the floor in the white section. She was hauled away from the movie theatre, jailed and fined. Ultimately, she was charged with tax evasion since the difference between a white person’s ticket and a black person’s ticket was one cent.

She fought the charge in court, but the court never overturned the conviction.

Desmond died in 1965 in New York. In April 2010, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia granted her a posthumous free pardon and apologized for the province’s behavior all those years ago.  According to one article, some members of Desmond’s family were upset with the decision, as if a pardon removes the offense from the record like it never happened, instead wanting all Canadian students to know all about Desmond’s battle for justice.  Read more...

Listen to the first single from Esperanza Spalding’s upcoming album

Spalding’s new single featuring Algebra Blessett is pretty catchy and beautiful, but what really got us in this video was the intro; do school kids these days get enough African history? We imagine it’s better now that Black History Month is observed every February, but we can’t recall learning anything about African princes and democracy back in elementary school. (Though, to be fair, we also didn’t get much world history until high school — elementary school history is a lot of Samuel de Champlain ’round these parts).

We’d like to know if any Bunch families have special Black History Month traditions, or if you plan to set aside some time to talk to your kids about important figures in the quest for Civil Rights.  Read more...