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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.”