Shirley Sherrod

Sherrod Statement On Breitbart Suit: He Never Apologized

Eric Lach | February 15, 2011, 11:30AM

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod has issued a statement addressing the defamation suit she filed against Andrew Breitbart in D.C. Superior Court last week. Sherrod was forced to resign from her USDA job last year, after Breitbart posted an edited video of a speech she gave to a Georgia NAACP chapter.

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Andrew Breitbart

Shirley Sherrod Sues Andrew Breitbart Over Video

Eric Lach | February 14, 2011, 10:36AM

Shirley Sherrod and Andrew Breitbart

Shirley Sherrod, who was fired from her USDA job last year after Andrew Breitbart posted online an edited video of her, has filed a lawsuit for libel and slander against Breitbart in D.C. Superior Court. The suit was filed on Friday, and Breitbart was served with it this weekend, while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, according to The New York Times.

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Pigford settlement

Obama Signs Settlements For Black Farmers, American Indians

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 6:05PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama this afternoon signed a law funding two major legal settlements for black farmers and American Indians who were discriminated against by the federal government.

The Pigford II settlement, worth $1.25 billion, will pay claims made by black farmers that they were discriminated against by the Department of Agriculture in the 1980s and 1990s, when the department denied them loans and other assistance. The Cobell settlement, worth $3.4 billion, is for American Indians whose land trusts and oil and gas rights were mismanaged by the federal government, which withheld royalties.

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Eric Holder

Holder, Vilsack To Rep. King: We Will Indeed Combat Any Pigford Fraud

Ryan J. Reilly | December 8, 2010, 12:52PM

Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack hit back at critics of the settlement reached between the government and African-American farmers who say they were discriminated against by the Agriculture Department. Conservatives said the legislation, which President Barack Obama is set to sign into law today, has the potential for fraud.

TPM asked at a news conference this morning what the government was doing to combat fraud in the Pigford settlement.

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Pigford settlement

Funding For Black Farmers' Settlement Passes House

Rachel Slajda | November 30, 2010, 4:44PM

John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, who advocated for the passing of the Pigford II settlement

The House today passed a bill authorizing the funding of two massive settlements, one for black farmers discriminated against by the USDA and another for American Indians whose oil, gas and water rights were mismanaged by the U.S. government. The vote was 256 to 152.

The funding will now go to the President's desk for his signature.

The $1.25 billion Pigford II settlement, for black farmers who were denied loans and other assistance in the 1980s and 90s, was settled in court in February. The $3.4 billion Cobell settlement for American Indians was settled last December. They've been attached to numerous bills since and repeatedly failed, largely due to objections from Republicans.

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Pigford settlement

Senate Passes Funding For Settlement For Black Farmers

Rachel Slajda | November 19, 2010, 5:19PM

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

The Senate today approved funding for the Pigford II settlement after nine months of delays. It must still be approved by the House in order to pass.

The $1.25 billion settlement is the result of a class action lawsuit filed by black farmers who were discriminated against by the Department of Agriculture. The settlement was approved by a federal judge in February.

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Keepseagle settlement

Gov't Announces $760M Settlement For Native American Farmers

Rachel Slajda | October 20, 2010, 8:44AM

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

The departments of Agriculture and Justice yesterday announced a $780 million settlement for Native American farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA in the 1980s and 90s, ending more than a decade of litigation.

If the settlement is approved by a federal court, as expected, an untold number of Native American farmers who were denied loans and other assistance by the USDA will be able to apply for restitution, between $50,000 and $250,000 each -- a total of $680 million. The settlement will also offer up to $80 million in debt forgiveness for eligible 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 Punts Again On Settlement For African American Farmers

Rachel Slajda | August 6, 2010, 3:47PM

Farmer Robert Horton, Sr., and wife, Maggie, of Tennessee have applied to be part of the USDA's Pigford settlement

The Senate tried twice yesterday to pass the Pigford II settlement, a $1.15 billion authorization for African-American farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA. The Senate failed, twice -- and now the authorization will have to wait until September, when senators return from recess.

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Pigford settlement

Pigford Vote Delayed; Expected Tomorrow

Rachel Slajda | August 3, 2010, 12:37PM

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

A vote on approving $1.15 billion for the Pigford settlement, scheduled for last night, has been delayed. Senate Democrats expect to vote tomorrow instead.

Congress, especially the Senate, has struggled to authorize money for the Pigford settlement, which grants restitution to African-American farmers discriminated against by the USDA.

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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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Shirley Sherrod

Sherrod's Potential New Title: Deputy Director Of Advocacy And Outreach

Rachel Slajda | July 27, 2010, 1:19PM

Former USDA Official Shirley Sherrod

CBS News reports today that the job offered to Shirley Sherrod by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack would carry a new title for Sherrod: deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.

Sherrod told CBS that she's still reading the official written job offer and has not made a decision about accepting it.

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Pigford settlement

Senate Strips Funding For Legal Settlement To Black Farmers From War Bill

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 10:27AM

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

Five months after President Obama announced a $1.25 billion settlement for black farmers who faced overt discrimination by the USDA in the eighties and nineties -- and several days after the Sherrod case brought the issue up again -- Congress again refused to authorize the money.

On Thursday, the Senate quietly stripped the funding for the Pigford II settlement and several other programs from a supplemental war funding bill. Senators then unanimously passed their version of the bill, which will go back to the House.

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Andrew Breitbart

Breitbart: I Was Targeting The NAACP. Honest!

Rachel Slajda | July 23, 2010, 9:19AM

Andrew Breitbart

After we reported yesterday that the Shirley Sherrod scandal came the same week as the Senate may vote on authorizing $1.15 billion in restitution for black farmers, Andrew Breitbart wrote us that that had nothing to do with it.

"No. Seriously. On everything I hold dear," Breitbart swore in an email to TPMmuckraker. As he has since the full-length video of Sherrod's speech came out, sparking a backlash against him, Breitbart reiterated that none of this was ever about Sherrod personally.

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Race

Conservatives Try To Bash USDA Anti-Racism Suit, Shirley Sherrod

Rachel Slajda | July 22, 2010, 8:51AM

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

In defending his decision to fire Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack explained multiple times that his department has a "sordid" and "checkered" history of both overt and institutionalized racism. But with the term "racism" being tossed around rather a lot recently, it is important to understand both what he meant -- and what role that acknowledged racism played in Shirley Sherrod's life.

It's also important to understand that Andrew Breitbart's timing of the release of the grossly distorted video of Sherrod, which he admits having had for weeks, may not be entirely random. Congress will soon vote on whether to fund part of a settlement between the USDA and African-American farmers who faced acknowledged discrimination -- farmers like Sherrod and her husband used to be. It's a tiny piece of the upcoming war supplemental bill.

The USDA settlements with African-American farmers are a longtime bête noire of the right, which they deem a giveaway to a core Democratic constituency. It's not clear whether Brietbart's release of the video was specifically intended to hurt the chances of other African-America farmers to receive recompense from decades of discrimination that caused them to lose their farms, but conservatives immediately used the video to attack the settlement. The discrimination claims, known globally as the Pigford settlement, is the elephant in the room, so here's the background.

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Shirley Sherrod

Gibbs Apologizes To Sherrod; She May Get Her Job Back (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 21, 2010, 3:01PM

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today offered an apology to Shirley Sherrod on behalf of the Obama administration.

He said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is trying to reach Sherrod as well, to offer his own apology and to "talk about their next steps."

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Shirley Sherrod

Breitbart Feels Sorry For Shirley Sherrod (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 21, 2010, 11:52AM

Andrew Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart, who posted the clip of USDA official Shirley Sherrod that got her fired, said today that he feels sorry for Sherrod.

"I feel bad that they made this about her, and I feel sorry that they made this about her," he told MSNBC. "Watching how they've misconstrued, how the media has misconstrued the intention behind this, I do feel a sympathy for her plight."

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Shirley Sherrod

Vilsack Reconsidering On Sherrod, But Does She Even Want Her Job Back?

Rachel Slajda | July 21, 2010, 9:14AM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

In a statement sent at 2 a.m. today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack backed off his previous statements defending the forced resignation of Georgia rural development director Shirley Sherrod and said he's willing to reconsider.

"I am of course willing and will conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts to ensure to the American people we are providing services in a fair and equitable manner," Vilsack said.

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Shirley Sherrod

WATCH: Full Video Of Sherrod's Speech

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 7:40PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

The NAACP just posted the full video of Shirley Sherrod's speech in front of the Coffee County NAACP this past March.

The relevant part starts about 16 minutes in. Sherrod is talking about how her father was killed by a white man when she was 17; that night, she says, she made a commitment to stay in the South and work toward change.

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Shirley Sherrod

Sherrod Says Her Father Was Killed By A White Farmer

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 6:52PM

In one of her interviews with CNN today, Shirley Sherrod said that 45 years ago, her father was killed by a white farmer.

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Defends Shirley Sherrod: It's Possible 'This Woman Deserves Her Job Back' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 20, 2010, 6:44PM

Shirley Sherrod may have found an unlikely ally: Glenn Beck.

Beck defended the USDA appointee, who resigned after Big Government posted a controversial video clip of a speech she gave to the NAACP earlier this year. In the clip, she described an incident when she debated how much to help a white farmer in need of assistance, though she has said that her remarks were taken out of context.

Beck said today that it's possible she "deserves her job back."

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USDA

USDA, White House Deny White House Involvement In Sherrod's Forced Resignation (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 6:01PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

Officials with the USDA and the White House this afternoon deny that the White House had any involvement in the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod from the USDA. And Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said she was was asked to resign because she had opened herself up to future allegations of racism.

Sherrod was asked to resign yesterday over a video clip from a speech she gave in March to a Georgia chapter of the NAACP. Sherrod, until yesterday the Georgia state director of rural development, told an audience that in 1986, while she was working with a farm aid nonprofit, she didn't do all she could to help a white farmer.

Since her forced resignation, Sherrod has claimed repeatedly that her boss in the USDA told her the White House wanted her to resign.

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Shirley Sherrod

Breitbart On Sherrod's NAACP Speech: 'I Did Not Edit This Thing'

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 3:58PM

Andrew Breitbart

The crux of the Shirley Sherrod controversy is what she said outside of the two-minute video clip posted by Big Government -- whether she was, as she claims, telling a story about how she overcame racial prejudice while helping poor farmers in Georgia, or whether the clip is a good encapsulation of her views. So we asked Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Big Government, why he hasn't posted the full video.

"I don't have it," Breitbart told TPMmuckraker in an interview. Breitbart said his source sent him just the edited clips at first, but is in the process of sending the full video.

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USDA

Agriculture Secretary Stands By Asking For Sherrod's Resignation

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 3:48PM

Dep. of Agriculture Sec. Thomas Vilsack

The USDA just released a statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defending his decision to demand the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the Georgia director of rural development, over a video posted on Big Government.

The statement:

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NAACP

NAACP Now 'Conducting Investigation' Into Sherrod Video

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 2:08PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

The NAACP, which originally condemned USDA appointee Shirley Sherrod, is now saying it is conducting an investigation of her story and will issue a new statement.

"The NAACP is conducting an investigation into the recent revelations about the situation with Ms. Shirley Sherrod, including attempting to speak with Ms. Sherrod, the farmer in question and viewing the full video," the NAACP said in a statement to CNN. "Following a full and comprehensive process, we will issue an updated statement."

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Race

USDA Appointee Forced To Resign After Edited Speech Released By Breitbart (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 1:03PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod, an appointee to the USDA, was forced to resign yesterday after Big Government posted a video of a speech Sherrod gave in March. In the video, Sherrod, who is black, recounts how, 24 years ago, she didn't help a white farmer as much as she could.

In the speech, given to a local Georgia chapter of the NAACP, Sherrod recounts a time when, while she was working for a land assistance fund, a white farmer came and asked her for help.

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