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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2016)
Page 10 The Skanner December 7, 2016 News Oct. 20, 2026 - Aug. 28, 2016 A once. He retired in aron Brown 1995 but continued was the fi rst to preside as a Cir- born of 10 cuit Court judge as children to needed in multiple Aaron Sr. and Edna Oregon counties for Mae Brown in Bell, several more years. La. on Oct. 20, 1926. Aaron was very ac- His family moved to Houston when he tive in many commu- was four-years old nity organizations, where he attended including the Urban school and church. League, NAACP, Or- Aft er graduating egon Black Lawyers, from Phillis Wheat- Kiwanis, American ley High School in Bar Association, 1944 he helped his Oregon State Bar, family supplement Multnomah Bar Aaron Brown their income by sell- Association, AFL- ing chicken and fi sh until he was draft - CIO’s Executive Council, Boy Scouts of ed into the U.S. Army where he served America and the Sigma Pi Phi Fraterni- as Private First Class until he received ty Boule’ — any other organizations. Two children were born during his an honorable discharge. He attended Southern University, but later trans- fi rst marriage, Gregory A. (Angela), ferred to Fisk University where he and Yevette D. Later he met and mar- worked as a railroad porter and attend- ried Alvenice Mines in 1970 and ad- opted her son Eric V (Renee). He leaves ed classes until graduation. In 1955 he moved to Portland, Ore., behind four grand-children: Marquise, and set up a shoe shine stand in the Ben- Autumn, Erica, Quincy, and three son Hotel in downtown Portland before great- grandchildren. He is survived becoming employed by the State of Or- by two brothers: Karl Brown (Betty egon’s Social Welfare Department. Ann) and Frank Brown as well as one While employed there, he enrolled sister-in-law, Corinne Coleman and and attended Lewis and Clark College’s one brother-in-law, Smyth Alford and Northwestern School of Law night pro- many other relatives. gram. In 1959 he graduated from law Aft er retiring, Aaron and Alvenice school and immediately passed the Or- re-located to Holly Springs, Miss., in egon State Bar. He opened his law offi ce 1999 where they resided until his death in the hub of the Black community at on Aug. 28, 2016. the intersection of North Williams Av- During their years together they en- enue and Sacramento Street. joyed the love and friendship of many In 1968, then-Portland Mayor Terry friends in Oregon, Washington, and Schrunk appointed Aaron as a pro tem Mississippi. Aaron passed away on at judge and later made the appointment Alliance HealthCare System facility permanent, thus he became Oregon’s in Holly Springs, Miss. He was one of fi rst Black judge. In 1971 then Gov. a kind, and will be truly missed and Tom McCall appointed him to District always be loved and remembered by Court. He successfully ran for re-elec- his family and many friends and col- tion four times, facing opposition only leagues. From Banks to Beauty Products The #BuyBlack Movement Is Real By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Contributor I t’s a trend that many are hoping won’t just turn into a passing fad. Late last month, Essence mag- azine noted that aft er years of slow-burning idealism, #BuyBlack has seen a community-wide takeoff . And, as the holiday season moves into full swing, the #BuyBlack cam- paign has led many to imagine what would happen if African Americans — the largest consumer group of color in the United States with an estimated $1.2 trillion in spending power — rou- tinely demonstrated allegiance to the 2.6 million Black-owned businesses that exist in America. “I think the #BuyBlack initiative is a good move for the Black communi- ty and not just because of dollars and cents,” said Walt L. Jones III, principal of the SEQ Advisory Group, a Bethes- da, Maryland-based management consulting and advisory fi rm dedi- cated to helping businesses achieve the highest level of performance and effi ciency. “There’s the deeper per- spective of reinvesting in our own community and building up the local businesses, some that are owned by our friends, neighbors, and relatives.” Jones continued: “Similar to the #ECStrong initiative, a community can only heal, recover, and persevere if its residents are willing to make an investment in its infrastructure.” The idea of Black capitalism goes back many decades, according to an NPR report which cited the advoca- cy of civil rights activists Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey for African Americans to create and do business with each other to build wealth within their own communi- ties. The #BuyBlack movement has helped Black-owned banks to realize substantial gains. In one month, this summer, Washington, D.C.-based In- RICHELIEU DENNIS/SUNDIAL BRANDS Obituary: Aaron Brown Richelieu Dennis, the founder and CEO of Sundial Brands, the largest Black-owned beauty company in the country, sees the positive eff ects of the #BuyBlack movement. dustrial Bank opened more than 1,500 new accounts with deposit balances of about $2.7 million — or more than the number of accounts that are usu- ally opened in a six-month period. At Baltimore-based Harbor Bank, new accounts totaled about $10 mil- lion in deposits, said Joseph Haskins Jr., the bank’s president and chair- man. “Because of the [#BuyBlack] move- ment, we’ve received many telephone calls from individuals and organiza- tions who’ve shown a lot of interest,” Haskins said. “Once folks learned or discovered that we are Black-con- trolled, things took off .” The idea of supporting the com- munity is vital for all involved, said Shahara Wright, an attorney and business development strategist with The CEO Eff ect, LLC, a Staff ord, Tex- as-based organization that provides small and mid-sized companies with legal and business strategies includ- ing entity formation, mergers and acquisitions, investor packages and contracts. “I think it only works when it is lo- cal. Many people point to Jewish and Asian communities, which seem to have cohesive purchasing power to support their own,” Wright said. “The #Buy- Black seeks to create that same idea…it ultimately has to be a community that you support consis- tently.” Sonja Thompkins, a brick & mortar business strategist and founder of SincerelySonja.com, said #BuyBlack is a trend for consumers of color to consciously spend their money within their own communities and partic- ularly with Black-owned businesses, a welcome movement. “I believe it gives peo- ple a sense of pride to see businesses like ours that off er an array of quality products in our own communities,” Thompkins said. “And, because most people are going to spend the mon- ey anyway, the recent occurrences of injustice make people want to do something. Everyone’s not protesting in the street. They have chosen to make a statement eco- nomically.” Read the rest of this story at TheSkanner.com
