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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2022)
Page 4 August 03, 2022 Ticket in Illinois Wins Jackpot Portland Observer’s own Mark Washinging, and suporter, Ken Bodie, came out to celebrate Dean’s Barbershop’s recoginition Black Landmark Continued from Front tions of memories of a close- Mega millions billboard AP photo by Paul Sancya night, and it was bought at a Speedway gas station and con- venience store in Des Plaines. The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14. “We are thrilled to have wit- nessed one of the biggest jack- (AP News) — Someone in a pot wins in Mega Millions his- Chicago suburb beat the odds tory,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat and won the $1.28 billion Mega McDonald, the current Lead Millions jackpot. Director for the Mega Millions According to megamillions. Consortium, said in a statement com, there was one jackpot-win- on the lottery’s website. “We’re ning ticket in the draw Friday eager to find out who won and Mega Millions lottery prize finally won look forward to congratulating the winner soon!” The $1.28 billion prize is for winners who choose the annui- ty option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimat- ed $747.2 million. The jackpot was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six se- lected numbers since April 15. New Techonlogy for Gun Safety Device to reduce gun violence proposed The Portland’s Focused Inter- vention Team community Over- sight Group (FITCOG) suggest to Portland leaders to start using a new technology to combat gun vi- olence called the ShotSpotter. This is due to Portland having a rise in gun violence in recent years. This technology is currently used in 100 or more cities and counties. The idea is to detect gunshots and get police out to the scene as soon as possible. Gun- shot detection by itself is not a resolution for gun violence, but if used as part of a comprehensive gun crime response strategy, it can contribute to a reduction. The technology attaches micro- phones to light poles, with gunshot sensors that immediately alert po- lice to a shooting. Now that the rec- ommendation has been received, Mayor Ted Wheeler and City coun- cil members will need to decide if investing in ShotSpotter is worth the police resources and cost. he was intrigued about the Lewis and Clark Expedition that he had learned about in school. Her grandmother was already trained as a beautician, Brown said, but it took 10 years before they were able to open the salon and barbershop. Ben eventual- ly went to barber school as they followed their dream of opening their own business, doing janito- rial work at a bank at night and going to barber school during the day, while Rose worked in some- one else’s salon. But they saved their money and eventually got an “uncon- ventional” loan to build their own building at 215 NE Han- cock, Brown said, because banks back then wouldn’t lend to Afri- can Americans. “Maybe it was a higher inter- est rate, or a balloon payment at the beginning or the end,” she said. “Today you might call them predatory lenders, but I don’t think that was the case. I believe they believed in my grandparents and were being helpful.” Getting designated as a histor- ic site wasn’t a simple process, Brown said, and it all started with Kimberly Moreland, a long- time client who was involved with Oregon Black Pioneers, the only historical society dedicated to preserving and presenting the experiences of African Ameri- cans statewide. One day while she was having her hair done, Moreland asked Brown if she’d like to try for the historic site designation, but said it was expensive and entailed a lot of research. Brown told her she didn’t have the time or the money, but More- land assured her it was possible. Eventually, Moreland told Brown she had secured funding and asked her if she wanted to proceed. Brown agreed and said Moreland was the “most import- ant part of the whole process.” And now the building can never be demolished. But the Dean’s story is more than a building; it’s genera- knit family. Brown was 18 when her grandmother passed away, and treasures her memories of her. “We went to Sunday school every Sunday with them and that was her area,” she said. “She ran the shop, she ran all the grand- kids and she ran her children. She took care of all the commu- nity, she took care of all of us.” It wasn’t easy for the Deans to establish a business during those segregated times, Brown said, but her grandmother took them on trips to see other parts of the country where Blacks weren’t such a minority as in Portland. “She wanted us to realize that we had a Black business but it wasn’t everybody’s norm here,” she said. “She wanted us to see that it was normal in the Mid- west, in the South and on the East Coast, that Black people did have stuff, that Black people owned medical clinics and hotels and motels.” Her grandmother also sup- ported local Black businesses, and always used Black plumbers and electricians, she said, which was sometimes side work, using skills they learned in Black high schools, like her grandfather did when he designed their building. “So they came out of high school with trades and skills and how to do stuff, and one of my grandfather’s skills was architec- ture,” she said. “He didn’t have a college degree, but he learned the basics so he designed the shop, something I only learned recently from one of my aunts.” Although neither of her two sons, both in their 30s, are di- rectly involved in the business, Brown has pressed on them that the business should remain in the family. “My sons know that the busi- ness will go on, even if they just run it and have operators work- ing in here,” she said. “Because now it’s a national landmark, and they know it has to go on for the next 68 years. They know this is what their great-grandparents would want.”
