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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