Viola Desmond, a pioneering businesswoman and civil rights leader, passed away on February 7, 1965, at the age of 50. Ms. Desmond was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1915, and at an early age established herself as a progressive entrepreneur. In the 1940s, she opened a beauty salon in Halifax and produced her own line of beauty products, becoming the first ever African-Canadian to run a business in the province. In the 1950s, she opened beauty schools in Atlantic Canada to continuously pass on the knowledge and skill of cosmetology to the next generation of entrepreneurs. Ms. Desmond was a steadfast advocate of civil rights. In 1946, she was arrested when she refused to leave a whites-only section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. This incident was a significant event in the early civil rights movement in Canada and is widely remembered as the ‘Viola Desmond incident’. Viola Desmond will be remembered as a leader in business, beauty, and civil rights. She was an inspiration to generations of Canadians who strived to achieve equitable treatment in our society.