When former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired in November, Pam McCollum quickly mobilized about 400 people to a rally in downtown Salem to show their concern for President Donald Trump’s use of executive power. (Aubrey Wieber/Salem Reporter)
Pam McCollum worked for years as a social worker, trying to make a difference in peoples’ lives behind the scenes.
But it wasn’t until after she retired that she was able to take a more visible role. She said activism takes two shapes — administrative and social justice.
“So when I retired, I said I am going to do the social justice stuff, because you can’t do that when you are working,” she said.
McCollum, 69, started organizing community activism events in Salem in 2017. It started with the women’s march the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The march brought millions of people to the streets in cities throughout America.
McCollum has since built on that momentum, organizing rallies responding to a white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, S.C. where a counter-protester was struck and killed with a car, and another after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired.
McCollum holds all her rallies at the west end of the Marion Street, which she said is the most visible part of the city. For the Charlottesville rally, she said she mobilized about 400 people within 24 hours through Facebook. She got about another 400 with less than a day’s notice when Sessions was fired. Many saw the move as an attack on the independent investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia.
“It was not very nice weather,” McCollum remembered. “It was cold, it was dark, so we had a really good turnout.”
To organize that one, McCollum leaned on MoveOn, an online platform where citizens can request to be notified of rallies in their area.
“I feel that the whole world is rather discouraging right now, but doing this makes me feel like I have some impact, at least in the local environment,” she said.
McCollum grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Salem in 1979. She worked in the state hospital, county programs and what is now the Oregon Health Authority as a mental health worker. Throughout her life, she was politically active. As a young mother she was involved in activism and worked phone banks for several political candidates. But organizing events in Salem over the past couple years has put her in more direct contact with other citizens trying to make a difference.
“I know a wider variety of people than I knew before,” she said.
McCollum said her efforts have slowed down a little, but she plans to be vocal to the 2019 Legislature. She said she will individually lobby for health care and immigrant rights. She’s also advocating for the national popular vote.
Making a difference on the state level is more accessible to an individual citizen, McCollum said. She just has to feed the parking meter and carve 20 minutes out of her day.
“It costs me 50 cents to go in there and bother them,” she said.
Reporter Aubrey Wieber: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
