For the First Time Ever, A Black Woman Is the New Face of the $10 Bill in Canada
Style Magazine Newswire | 3/30/2018, 8:28 a.m.
Viola Desmond
More than 70 years ago, Viola Desmond stood up for civil rights in Canada when she refused to leave a whites-only section of a theater. Last week, she was honored as the first Black person and a non-royal woman to become the face of a dollar bill in Canada. Civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond was the one chosen out of the 26,000 submissions that came in following Bank of Canada’s announcement that they will be featuring a Canadian woman on the country’s bill for the first time. Aside from being the first Black person to be featured on a regularly circulating Canadian bill, she is also the first non-royal, Canadian-born woman to do so. The $10 bill, which is also the first in the country to have a vertical orientation, is expected to be in circulation at the end of the year.
