Shirley Sherrod

Sherrod Refuses USDA Job Offers; May Consult Instead

Rachel Slajda | August 24, 2010, 10:31AM

Shirley Sherrod and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Shirley Sherrod, the USDA appointee who was fired this summer over allegations of racism stemming from a misleading video, will not take another job with the Departure of Agriculture.

Sherrod and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the decision in a press conference this morning after meeting face-to-face for the first time since the hullabaloo happened last month.

Sherrod was asked to resign her position as director of rural development for Georgia after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted an edited video of Sherrod speaking to a local Georgia NAACP. In the clip, Sherrod speaks of prejudice she once felt toward a white farmer while working for a nonprofit that was created to help black farmers.

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Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod Encourages Supporters To Keep Backing NAACP

Jillian Rayfield | August 18, 2010, 12:05PM

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod wrote an email yesterday on behalf of the NAACP, urging supporters to "move forward." Sherrod wrote: "The last thing I want to see happen is for my situation to weaken support for the NAACP."

Sherrod was forced to resign from the USDA after Andrew Breitbart released an edited video that showed her describing a time when she considered denying aid to a poor farmer because he was white. As Sherrod put it in her letter, Breitbart released the "intentionally deceptive, heavily edited clip from that speech to make it look as if I was delivering exactly the opposite message."

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Pigford settlement

Senate To Vote On African-American Farmers' Settlement Funds Tonight

Rachel Slajda | August 2, 2010, 3:52PM

Members of the National Black Farmers Association march outside the USDA in 2002.

The Senate is scheduled to vote tonight after 5:30 on whether to approve $1.15 billion for a discrimination settlement for African-American farmers.

The vote on the Pigford settlement will be a unanimous consent request, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid confirms to TPMmuckraker. That means it will pass unless a senator objects.

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