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She attended [[Fort Valley State University|Fort Valley State College]]<ref name = "WPT" /> and later studied [[sociology]] at [[Albany State University]] in Georgia while working for [[Civil Rights movement|civil rights]] with the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] where she met her future husband, minister [[Charles Sherrod]].<ref name="WP22Jul" /><ref name = "CNN Bio" /> She went on to [[Antioch University]] in [[Yellow Springs, Ohio]] where she earned her [[master's degree]] in [[community development]].<ref name = "CNN Bio" /> She returned to Georgia to work with the Department of Agriculture in Georgia "to help [[Minority group|minority]] farmers keep their land."<ref name = "CNN Bio" />
She attended [[Fort Valley State University|Fort Valley State College]]<ref name = "WPT" /> and later studied [[sociology]] at [[Albany State University]] in Georgia while working for [[Civil Rights movement|civil rights]] with the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] where she met her future husband, minister [[Charles Sherrod]].<ref name="WP22Jul" /><ref name = "CNN Bio" /> She went on to [[Antioch University]] in [[Yellow Springs, Ohio]] where she earned her [[master's degree]] in [[community development]].<ref name = "CNN Bio" /> She returned to Georgia to work with the Department of Agriculture in Georgia "to help [[Minority group|minority]] farmers keep their land."<ref name = "CNN Bio" />


In 1969, Sherrod and her husband helped pioneer the [[land trust]] movement in the U.S., co-founding [[New Communities]], a [[collective farming|collective farm]] in [[Southwest Georgia]] modeled on [[kibbutzim]] in Israel.<ref name="RuralDev" /><ref name = "CNN Bio" /> According to scholarship by land trust activists Susan Witt and [[Robert Swann (land trust pioneer)|Robert Swann]], [[New Communities]]' founding in 1969 by individuals such as the Sherrods connected to the [[Albany Movement]]<ref name = "alumnadraws"/> served as a laboratory and model in a movement toward the development of [[Community Land Trust]]s throughout the U.S.: "The perseverance and foresight of that team in Georgia, motivated by the right of African-American farmers to farm land securely and affordably, initiated the CLT movement in this country."<ref name = "landchallenge"/>
In 1969, Sherrod and her husband helped pioneer the [[land trust]] movement in the U.S.,<ref name = "alumnadraws"/> co-founding [[New Communities]], a [[collective farming|collective farm]] in [[Southwest Georgia]] modeled on [[kibbutzim]] in Israel.<ref name="RuralDev" /><ref name = "CNN Bio" /> According to scholarship by land trust activists Susan Witt and [[Robert Swann (land trust pioneer)|Robert Swann]], [[New Communities]]' founding in 1969 by individuals such as the Sherrods connected to the [[Albany Movement]]<ref name = "alumnadraws"/> served as a laboratory and model in a movement toward the development of [[Community Land Trust]]s throughout the U.S.: "The perseverance and foresight of that team in Georgia, motivated by the right of African-American farmers to farm land securely and affordably, initiated the CLT movement in this country."<ref name = "landchallenge"/>


Located in [[Lee County, Georgia]], the 6,000-acre project was the largest tract of black-owned land in the U.S.<ref name=RuralDev /> The project soon encountered difficulties in the opposition of area white farmers, who accused participants of being [[communist]]s,<ref name = "CNN Bio" /> and also from [[segregationist]] Democratic Governor [[Lester Maddox]], who prevented development funds for the project from entering the state.<ref name=RuralDev /> A drought in the 1970s and inability to get government loans led to the project's ultimate demise in 1985.<ref name = "CNN Bio" />
Located in [[Lee County, Georgia]], the 6,000-acre project was the largest tract of black-owned land in the U.S.<ref name=RuralDev /> The project soon encountered difficulties in the opposition of area white farmers, who accused participants of being [[communist]]s,<ref name = "CNN Bio" /> and also from [[segregationist]] Democratic Governor [[Lester Maddox]], who prevented development funds for the project from entering the state.<ref name=RuralDev /> A drought in the 1970s and inability to get government loans led to the project's ultimate demise in 1985.<ref name = "CNN Bio" />

Revision as of 04:01, 9 August 2010

Resignation of Shirley Sherrod
DateResignation via BlackBerry, July 19, 2010
Location

United States

Georgia (Sherrod enroute:
West Point–Albany)

Washington, D.C.

Participants

Shirley Sherrod
Andrew Breitbart

Roger and Eloise Spooner
of Iron City, Georgia

NAACP
Benjamin Jealous

US Department of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack

Obama administration
Robert Gibbs
Barack Obama

Fox News
Bill O'Reilly
Glenn Beck

CNN

OutcomeAfterward, apologies given her along with offer of new USDA position

On July 19, 2010, Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign from her position as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture[1] after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted video excerpts of Sherrod's address at a March 2010 NAACP event to his website.[2] The NAACP condemned her remarks, and U.S. government officials called on her to resign. However, upon review of the unedited video in context, the NAACP, White House officials, and Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture, apologized and Sherrod was offered a new position.

Breitbart posted the excerpts shortly after the NAACP passed a resolution which called on Tea Party leaders "to repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches".[3] He alleged that some NAACP members condoned racism despite publicly opposing it. In the video excerpts, Sherrod, an African American woman, described her actions while employed at a private advocacy firm in 1986 when a white farmer sought her help after his farm was about to be foreclosed.[4] The decision to fire her was reversed when the full video revealed a different interpretation of her remarks.[1]

The event brought to the forefront current debates regarding racism in the United States, cable news reporting, internet ideological websites, and President Barack Obama's administration decisions.[5][4] The Obama administration has since apologized to Sherrod, and has offered her another job.[6][7] As of August 2010, Sherrod had not decided if she will accept the job offer from the Department of Agriculture.[8]

Preceding controversy

Excerpted video

On July 19, 2010, a 2½-minute video[A] was posted by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart to his website showing Sherrod making the following remarks to the NAACP Freedom Fund:

You know, the first time I was faced with helping a white farmer save his farm, he took a long time talking but he was trying to show me he was superior to me. I know what he was doing. But he had come to me for help. What he didn't know, while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me, was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him. I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland. And here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land. So, I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough so that when he... I assumed the Department of Agriculture had sent him to me, either that, or the Georgia Department of Agriculture, and he needed to go back and report that I did try to help him. So I took him to a white lawyer that had attended some of the training that we had provided because Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted for the family farm. So I figured if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him.

That's when it was revealed to me that it's about poor versus those who have, and not so much about white – it is about white and black, but it's not, you know, it opened my eyes because I took him to one of his own.[9]

— From video excerpt originally published on Breitbart.com

According to Breitbart, the video depicted Sherrod, a federally appointed executive bureaucrat, describing "how she racially discriminat[ed] against a white farmer" and the NAACP audience approved with "murmurs of recognition and agreement".[9] Subsequent events showed that the posted video was an excerpt of broader comments that conveyed a different meaning.[10] Breitbart said he did not edit the video and did not have a copy of the entire speech.[11] The full 43-minute video[B] was produced by a Douglas, Georgia, company that filmed the banquet for the local Georgia chapter of the NAACP. The owner of the video company, Johnny Wilkerson, said on July 20 that he was sending the full video to the national NAACP and would post it in full once he got permission to do so.[12] Breitbart's source for the excerpt remained confidential as of July 2010.[13]

Controversy timeline

Much of the controversy surrounding this incident involves actions that were taken by the parties and when these actions were performed. An extensive timeline of the affair was produced by Media Matters for America[14], which is generally considered to be a left-of-center organization. Greg Pollowitz of National Review Online, a right-of-center media outlet, endorsed Media Matters' timeline as "as good as any I’ve seen" with the exception of the exclusion of a TV news broadcast timeline.[15]

Initial media reports

The first news outlet to report on the Breitbart video was FoxNews.com, which posted an article about the story on its website.[16][14] The New York City affiliate for CBS also posted a report on its website later that afternoon.[14] The Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper's related website also soon picked up the story.[17] In addition, the story was picked up and reported widely in the blogosphere.[14]

Resignation of Sherrod

According to Sherrod, that afternoon she received numerous demands from government officials to submit her resignation, demands that she characterized as harrassment.[18] In response to a call from USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook, Sherrod submitted her resignation via email. Sherrod claims that Cook told her White House officials wanted her to quit immediately because the controversy was "going to be on Glenn Beck tonight[18] ", a claim disputed by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.[6]

Official denunciations of Sherrod

That same evening, the President of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, posted a tweet stating that his organization was "appalled" by Sherrod's comments.[14] USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement the following day explaining his agency's actions in the firing:

Yesterday, I asked for and accepted Ms. Sherrod's resignation for two reasons. First, for the past 18 months, we have been working to turn the page on the sordid civil rights record at USDA and this controversy could make it more difficult to move forward on correcting injustices. Second, state rural development directors make many decisions and are often called to use their discretion. The controversy surrounding her comments would create situations where her decisions, rightly or wrongly, would be called into question making it difficult for her to bring jobs to Georgia. Our policy is clear. There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA and we strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person. We have a duty to ensure that when we provide services to the American people we do so in an equitable manner. But equally important is our duty to instill confidence in the American people that we are fair service providers.[19]

Initial broadcasting of Breitbart video

The Breitbart video was first broadcast that evening on The O'Reilly Factor, a talk show on the Fox News Channel.[14] Bill O'Reilly stated that Sherrod should resign.[14] At the time of the taping of the show, news of Sherrod's resignation had not yet been reported, nor had the NAACP yet released the full video. However, the program was not broadcast until after Sherrod resigned and O'Reilly's staff confirmed that fact by corresponding with the USDA.[20]

The video was also mentioned by St. Louis Tea Party organizer Dana Loesch on Larry King Live,[21][22] and on Anderson Cooper 360 (both on CNN).[23][20] It was discussed on Hannity and On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (both on Fox) as well,[17] but notably not on Glenn Beck.[24]

Sherrod's account

In the full video, Sherrod related her experience with a farmer, who in 1986 was the first white farmer to come to her for help. (The name of the farmer was discovered to be Roger Spooner on July 20 when CNN received a telephone call from Spooner's wife.[25]) Sherrod narrated that "the land was being sold, and had in fact already been rented out from under him." At first, she felt that he had a superior attitude toward her causing her to recall her life in the South including the murder of her father,[26] but further stated as follows.

I didn't let that get in the way of trying to help... I didn't discriminate ... If I had discriminated against him, I would not have given him any help at all because I wasn't obligated to do it by anyone ... I didn't have to help that farmer. I could have sent him out the door without giving him any help at all. But in the end, we became very good friends, and that friendship lasted for some years.

...

I didn't know of any black farmers who would come out and try to support a white farmer at that point. ... I wasn't really sure of what I could do because at that time, I thought they [white people] had the advantages. I learned that was not the case.[26]

According to Sherrod, she did her job – taking him to a white lawyer.[27]

[I]f I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him ... but that lawyer failed to help ... I did not discriminate against [the farmer]. And, in fact, I went all out to frantically look for a lawyer at the last minute because the first lawyer we went to was not doing anything to really help him. In fact, that lawyer suggested they should just let the farm go. The second attorney [was able to help the farmer] file Chapter 11 bankruptcy to help the family stay on the farm.[26][27]

— Quotations from full transcript subsequently released by NAACP

Sherrod rejected claims that she was racist and said she in fact "went all out" to help the man keep his farm. She said that the incident helped her learn to move beyond race and she told the story to audiences to make that point.[27]

Spooner family's account

Roger Spooner said on CNN that Sherrod is not a racist, that Sherrod did everything she could for his family, and over twenty years later, he and Sherrod remain friends.[28] The Spooners credit Sherrod with helping them save their farm: "If it hadn't been for her, we would've never known who to see or what to do," Roger Spooner said. "She led us right to our success." His wife, Eloise Spooner, said that "after things kind of settled down, she brought Sherrod some tomatoes out of her garden, and they had a good visit."[27] Eloise Spooner recalled Sherrod as "nice-mannered, thoughtful, friendly; a good person."[27] The couple were surprised by the controversy. "I don't know what brought up the racist mess," Roger Spooner said. "They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion." Eloise Spooner said that on seeing the story of Sherrod's resignation, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.'"[27]

Full video

The extended unedited video of her speech released by the NAACP[29] showed that in her full speech Sherrod emphasized what was only touched on in the excerpt,[30] that she learned from the incident that poverty, not race, was the key factor in rural development. She said she ultimately worked hard to save the farmer's land.[4]

Working with him made me see that it's really about those who have versus those who haven't. They could be black, they could be white, they could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to help poor people – those who don't have access the way others have.[4]

As follows, other references to race in Sherrod's speech related to a story of her more recent help of a family to prevent forced sale of their farmland.

You know, I was helping a family here recently: 515 acres of land, never had a drop of debt on it since the grandfather bought it years ago and he – he died in 1974. And two cousins up in the North, guess what they decided? They tried to force a sale of every acre of it.[26]

...

And we found some honest lawyers – they were white. I wish I could say that about all lawyers, especially black lawyers.[26]

...

But they were trying to force a sale of all of it. They'll eventually get 62 acres of the 515. And guess what? They have a white man already lined up to buy it.[26]

— Quotations from full transcript subsequently released by NAACP

Subsequent events

Reactions to the incident

Ralph Paige, executive director of the nonprofit Sherrod worked for before being appointed to the USDA job in 2009, said that Sherrod "garnered only praise and there were never any claims of discrimination against her", adding that "I can't praise Shirley enough, she holds no malice in her heart".[27] The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People made a statement within hours of the video surfacing. The foundation's president Benjamin Jealous said in his first statement that:[31]

Racism is about the abuse of power. Ms. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race. We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers. Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man. The reaction from many in the audience is disturbing. We will be looking into the behavior of NAACP representatives at this local event and take any appropriate action. [27][31]

After the NAACP released the entire videotape,[29] the organization retracted its previous statement and said:[31]

With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias ... Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.[31]

Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart said Sherrod was the Obama administration's "sacrificial lamb".[32] Cable news pundit Glenn Beck speculated that the forced resignation was an attempt by the Obama administration to refute accusations of "reverse racism".[33]

After the uproar regarding Sherrod's resignation, Secretary Vilsack released a statement on the night of July 20 saying that the Department will "conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts".[34] Sherrod asserted that the NAACP was "the reason why this happened. They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that."[35] She added that "she might not want her job back if it's offered ... because of all the publicity surrounding what happened … how would I be treated once I'm back there? I just don't know ... I would have to be reassured on that."[36]

On July 21, 2010, Fox News rejected claims that they helped inflame the situation, stating in part: "[The network] did not make any mention of this story yesterday on the air until after Shirley Sherrod had already lost her job after Secretary Vilsack had already drawn his own conclusions – conclusions that the president apparently agreed with."[37] While the story was not mentioned on the Fox News Channel until after Sherrod's resignation, the edited video and an accompanying article had been published on the Fox News website, as well as those of several other news organizations, prior to her resignation.[14][2] Later, the White House sought official review of the case. Vilsack, meanwhile, said in an e-mail, "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."[38][39] Sherrod watched live at the CNN Center when Robert Gibbs extended her an apology;[10] there, she said she welcomed the review and accepted the apology, feeling the experience "bittersweet."[40]

House Minority Leader John Boehner, a Republican, criticized the airing of only a small portion of the video. He said, "It’s unfortunate that whoever laid this out there didn’t lay out the whole story, as opposed to a part of it... They only put a little piece of the story out there and people make judgments and they rush and they make bad decisions."[41] In an interview with Media Matters reporter Joe Strupp, Sherrod stated, in response to the implication that Fox News was being racist in the initial reporting of the incident, "When you look at their [Fox News'] reporting, this is just another way of seeing that they are [racist]. But I have seen that before now. I saw their reporting as biased during the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration."[42] In the afternoon of July 21, Vilsack said he offered a "personal and profound apology to Shirley Sherrod for forcing her to resign as a result of an out-of-context video posted to a conservative website."[43] He said that he had offered Ms. Sherrod a new position in the department and that she was taking time to consider it.[43] During the night, Bill O'Reilly, who, on Monday July 19, was the first on cable television to air the edited version of the clip originally posted by Andrew Breitbart on BigGovernment.com, apologized to Sherrod for his remarks calling for her removal from office;[C] on Wednesday, O'Reilly said, "I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context."[C]

Reactions from Breitbart

Text accompanying video's posting

We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.

In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn't do everything she can for him, because he is white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from "one of his own kind". She refers him to a white lawyer.

Sherrod's racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another groups' racial tolerance.

— Andrew Breitbart, Breitbart.com, July 19, 2010[9]

Initially, Breitbart offered no apologies to Sherrod, saying that she still harbored racist sentiments.[44] On July 20, 2010, in an interview with CNN's John King, Andrew Breitbart responded to questions regarding his intentions of releasing the video saying that:[45]

This was not about Shirley Sherrod. It's about the NAACP. This was about the NAACP attacking the Tea Party and this [the video of Ms. Sherrod] is showing racism at an NAACP event. I did not ask for Shirley Sherrod to be fired. I did not ask for any repercussions for Shirley Sherrod. They were the ones that took the initiative to get rid of her.[45]

Breitbart also questioned Eloise Spooner's true identity on CNN: "You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer’s wife? What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer’s wife? You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife?"[46]

In a July 30 interview with Newsweek, Breitbart said about apologizing, "I’d be more than happy to meet with her in private and have a discussion with her... I’ll go wherever she wants. I’ll go to Albany, Georgia [where Sherrod resides]." He said he wanted to speak with Sherrod "outside of the media circus." He also agreed that the excerpted video took things out of context and said, if he could do things all over again, he would not post the excerpted video.[47]

Reaction and subsequent statements by Sherrod

President Obama spoke to Sherrod personally through a phone call that lasted for seven minutes. Although he did not apologize personally to her, Sherrod was "very, very pleased with the conversation" and accepted the conversation as a tacit apology by Obama.[48] On July 22, Sherrod said she planned to sue Breitbart, who published the edited video on his website that led to her resignation.[49] She also stated that she would like to see Breitbart's BigGovernment.com website "shut down".[50]

Charles Sherrod (Shirley's husband) on controversy

The attack on my wife has opened up an avalanche of discussion on a tabooed subject – race. It is a blessing to be an instrument of God's grace.

—E-mail to Salon's Joan Walsh, August 1, 2010[51]

In an interview with CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, Sherrod referred to Breitbart as "vicious" and a "racist" and said that he would "like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery".[52] National Review commentator Jonah Goldberg, who previously called on Breitbart to apologize to Sherrod for releasing the incomplete video,[53] argued that Sherrod should now apologize to Breitbart for her imputing Breitbart to support reinstating slavery.[54] His National Review colleague Ramesh Ponnuru commented similarly.[55] Salon's Joan Walsh said with regard to Sherrod's allegation, "She gets to say that because it’s true, and because from her vantage point it’s especially true."[56] Sherrod said on July 29, 2010 that she was seriously "considering a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart" and that "she would like [BigGovernment.com] to be shut down."[57]

Ron Coleman, intellectual property attorney, blogger and general counsel for the Media Bloggers Association, said that a case by Sherrod against Breitbart was unlikely to succeed because of the U.S.'s sweeping freedom-of-speech protections that made libel difficult to prove, with Sherrod's needing to demonstrate that Breitbart had "actual malice".[58] James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal commented: "[O]ur guess is that a smart lawyer will advise her against it – and that if she does sue, she will end up settling in exchange for an apology or a more emphatic correction."[59]

Further information: United States defamation law

Biography of Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod
Shirley Sherrod at a March 2010 regional USDA meeting.
Born
Shirley Miller

c. 1948
Newton-Baker County, Georgia, U.S.
Education

Fort Valley State Col.

Albany State Univ.: sociology, 1970

Antioch University: masters, community development, 1989[60]

Occupation

Civil rights activist

Former Georgia State Director of Rural Development United States Department of Agriculture

Sociologist

Known forAlbany Movement
New Communities collective farm

Pigford v. Glickman

Forced resignation from the USDA, July 19, 2010

Spouse(s)Charles Sherrod
minister
Parent(s)Grace and Hosie Miller

Shirley Miller was born in 1948 in Baker County, Georgia, to Grace and Hosie Miller.[61][62] In 1965, when she was 17 years old, her father, Hosie Miller, a deacon at the local Baptist Church, was shot to death by a white farmer, reportedly over a dispute about livestock.[62] No charges were returned against the shooter by an all-white grand jury.[62] This was a turning point in her life and led her to feel that she should stay in the South to bring about change.[62] That same year she was among the first black students to enroll in the previously all-white high school in Baker County.[61]

She attended Fort Valley State College[61] and later studied sociology at Albany State University in Georgia while working for civil rights with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee where she met her future husband, minister Charles Sherrod.[63][62] She went on to Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she earned her master's degree in community development.[62] She returned to Georgia to work with the Department of Agriculture in Georgia "to help minority farmers keep their land."[62]

In 1969, Sherrod and her husband helped pioneer the land trust movement in the U.S.,[64] co-founding New Communities, a collective farm in Southwest Georgia modeled on kibbutzim in Israel.[65][62] According to scholarship by land trust activists Susan Witt and Robert Swann, New Communities' founding in 1969 by individuals such as the Sherrods connected to the Albany Movement[64] served as a laboratory and model in a movement toward the development of Community Land Trusts throughout the U.S.: "The perseverance and foresight of that team in Georgia, motivated by the right of African-American farmers to farm land securely and affordably, initiated the CLT movement in this country."[66]

Located in Lee County, Georgia, the 6,000-acre project was the largest tract of black-owned land in the U.S.[65] The project soon encountered difficulties in the opposition of area white farmers, who accused participants of being communists,[62] and also from segregationist Democratic Governor Lester Maddox, who prevented development funds for the project from entering the state.[65] A drought in the 1970s and inability to get government loans led to the project's ultimate demise in 1985.[62]

Sherrod went on to work with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, to help black farmers keep their land.[62][63] She and her husband lost their farm when they were unable to secure USDA loans.[63] Sherrod along with other activists sued the USDA in Pigford v. Glickman in order to protect the remaining black farms in danger of becoming shut down. The Department agreed to a settlement in which compensation was paid between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1999,[62] in "the largest civil rights settlement in history, with nearly $1 billion being paid to more than 16,000 victims."[62]

A federal law passed in 2008 to allow up to 70,000 more claimants to qualify,[62] which included New Communities, the communal farm in which Sherrod and her husband had partnered. In 2009, chief arbitrator Michael Lewis ruled that the USDA had discriminated against New Communities by denying a loan to the operation and extending more favorable terms to white farmers.[67] New Communities received a $12.8 million settlement that included $8.2 million in compensation for loss of farm land, $4.2 million for loss of income and $150,000 each to Sherrod and her husband for "mental anguish".[65][68] Sherrod was hired by the USDA in August 2009 as the Georgia director of rural development, the first black person to hold that position.[62][67]

In late July 2010 (no longer a federal employee and thus constrained by the Hatch Act), Sherrod campaigned for her local Democratic Party United States Congressman. [67]

Selected analyses and commentary

Left–right politics

Commentators attributed the rivalry between the left and the right as an important factor in the controversy. The resignation came weeks after the Department of Justice’s decision to scale down a lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party, which the Tea Party movement attacked as racially motivated,[69] and which led the NAACP to pass a resolution "condemning extremist elements within the Tea Party, calling on Tea Party leaders to repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches."[70] Breitbart, who has described himself as a Tea Party member, said the video's release was in response to the NAACP's resolution.[69][71] The day before Breitbart posted the Sherrod video, the National Tea Party Federation announced that it was distancing itself from Tea Party spokesperson Mark Williams because of a racially offensive letter Williams had written, also in response to the NAACP resolution.[72] Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton's Center for African American Studies, said some conservatives manipulated white fears for political advantage:

I think many white Americans are fearful that with Obama in the White House, and the diversity in his appointments, that the racial balance of power is shifting. And that's frightening both because people always are afraid to give up privilege, and because of the prospect of a black-and-brown backlash against a very ugly history. Some liberals have long maintained that racism requires power, and so black people can't be racist. Obama's election undercut the first argument and made the specter of black racism appear more threatening.[73]

Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi commented that "the Sherrod incident should be a teachable moment for the left... It illustrates how easily a reckless charge of racism can destroy someone" and expressed his belief that the incident brought an "onslaught of manufactured distress and outrage" – inconsistent with the lack of such outrage shown when those on the right were attacked for remarks also taken out of context.[74] David Limbaugh, writing for NewsMax, said that even though "two wrongs don't make a right"; still, "How about the irony in the castigation of Breitbart for smearing someone as a racist by people who routinely smear an entire group of people (conservatives) as racists?"[75] Journalist Ben Smith of The Politico remarked,

The America of 2010 is dominated by racial images out of farce and parody, caricatures not seen since the glory days of Shaft. Fox News often stars a leather-clad New Black Panther, while MSNBC scours the tea party movement for racist elements, which one could probably find in any mass organization in America. Obama's own, sole foray into the issue of race involved calling a police officer 'stupid,' and regretting his own words [the Henry Louis Gates incident]. Conservative leaders and the NAACP, the venerable civil-rights group, recently engaged in a round of bitter name-calling that left both groups wounded and crying foul. Political correctness continues to reign in parts of the left, and now has a match in the belligerent grievance of conservatives demanding that hair-trigger allegations of racism be proven.[20]

Reactions to incident and debate about media's role

She [Sherrod] is democratic nobility and black royalty. She’s an American hero. She’s a Christian soldier for justice. Why? Because in the face of...trauma, in the face of being stigmatized what does she do? Like...Fannie Lou Hamer, I will love my way through this darkness by promoting justice not revenge.

—Princeton professor Cornel West, Face the Nation, July 25, 2010[76]

After the release of the full video, media outlets across the political spectrum criticized the decision to force Sherrod to resign. Newsweek characterized commentators' reactions to the controversy as "sad," "indignant," "accusatory," "sickened," and "scolding."[77] One Huffington Post commentator likened Sherrod to Rosa Parks.[78] MSNBC commentator Pat Buchanan also likened Sherrod to Rosa Parks, commenting in what the news and opinion site Mediaite characterized as an "unintentionally insensitive" remark that the White House and the NAACP "threw Rosa Parks under the bus."[79]

Jeff Greenfield of CBS News criticized the role of the 24-hour news in this incident saying "The old United Press International wire service had a slogan: 'Get it first, but first get it right'. In the wake of the Shirley Sherrod story, it's worth asking whether more and more the second half of that slogan has been dumped into the trash bin."[80] The BBC commented about "the absurdity of the spin-cycle in which American journalists and politicians are intertwined and about the febrile atmosphere that surrounds any story about race".[81] The New York Times published a story indicating "the influence of right-wing web sites like the one run by Andrew Breitbart, the blogger who initially posted the misleading and highly edited video, which he later said had been sent to him already edited. ... Politically charged stories often take root online before being shared with a much wider audience on Fox. The television coverage, in turn, puts pressure on other news media outlets to follow up".[82]

Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly took issue with Sherrod's referring to the white lawyer she sent the white farmer to as "one of his own". He described her as a "long-time liberal activist", described her winning $300,000 "for her and her husband" when she sued the Department of Agriculture and expressed his belief that she should not be "doing the people's business [work in government]".[83] In response to Sherrod's statement that Fox News "would love to take us back where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and be a whole person", Fox News journalist Bret Baier said: "Miss Sherrod, that is just not true. It's not true." Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer said "She was a victim, but that doesn't entitle her to victimize others and to use these kinds of attack."[84]

Mediaite's Steve Krakauer reported that although FoxNews.com broke the story, it was later reported by other online sites such as the Atlanta Journal Constitution's. On Monday night, the story was mentioned by Tea party activist Dana Loetsch on Larry King Live and Anderson Cooper 360, both on CNN, as well as the programs The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, and On the Record, all on Fox. On Tuesday, mostly after the full video was released, FNC covered the story 39 times, MSNBC covered it 21 times, and CNN mentioned it 63 times – leading Krakauer to believe the idea that Fox lead her to resign a "myth".[17] Howard Kurtz stated in The Washington Post that the Fox News network, with the exception of brief comments by O'Reilly, did not discuss the story until after Sherrod's resignation was widely reported. According to Kurtz, the comments by O'Reilly were not actually broadcast until after O'Reilly's staff received word from the USDA of the resignation. Kurtz also said Fox Senior Vice President Michael Clemente sent out an email after a Monday afternoon meeting saying: "Let's take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let's make sure we do this right."[20] Clemente said that putting the story on the FoxNews.com website an hour before Sherrod's resignation was announced was a mistake.[85]

Are we supposed to take comfort in having our affairs managed by bureaucrats who see the country as a Manichean divide beset by institutionalized racism?

— Andrew McCarthy, National Review Online, July 22, 2010[86]

Fox personalities feuded repeatedly with MSNBC personalities about the Sherrod resignation. Rachel Maddow said Fox tried to "scare white people"; and O'Reilly called her and others "character assassins" who "slime" Fox.[87] Yet, Keith Olbermann faulted his own network, MSNBC, for its handling of the story.[20] In an interview on Fox News Sunday, former Democratic National Committee chairperson Howard Dean said that in its coverage of the Sherrod controversy, "Fox News did something that was absolutely racist." Dean stated that even if the network only discussed the story after she resigned, it should not have aired the tapes at all. He said the network continued "to cater to this theme of minority racism and stressing comments like this, some of which are taken out of context, and does not help the country knit itself together."[88] On his show, Glenn Beck called Dean's comments "[c]ompletely unpegged from the truth".[24]

Civil rights activist the Reverend Jesse Jackson contrasted the Sherrod incident to legal campaigns to remedy past USDA discrimination, saying:

[J]ust this past Thursday the black farmers got a $1.2 billion settlement, the [American] Indians a $3.2 billion settlement, for race discrimination. We're not discussing all the facts... 100,000 black farmers get no press. Native Americans get no press. We're still arguing about how fast or slow the White House reacted. Also the Spooner's testimony – this white family farmer, Eloise and Mr. Spooner – I thought their stepping up to the plate in alliance with Sherrod was a great news story that none of us should miss.[89]

Appearing on ABC's The View on July 29, President Obama characterized the controversy over Sherrod's firing as a "bogus" one generated by the media and said his administration overreacted in forcing her out.[90]

Notes

A.^ Video excerpt's precise length: 02 minutes, 38 seconds.[91]
B.^ Complete video's running time: 43 minutes, 15 seconds.[92]
C.^ With regard to O'Reilly's connection to the affair, media critic Matea Gold reported as follows.

Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign Monday after conservative activist Andrew Breitbart posted a video clip of Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP dinner on his website BigGovernment.com in which she appeared to say that she had once discriminated against a white farmer. The edited clip did not include the portion of the speech in which Sherrod said the episode had taught her the importance of overcoming personal prejudices....

O’Reilly was the first on cable to air the video, calling for Sherrod’s resignation Monday night. (By the time his taped show aired, she in fact had already resigned, a fact Fox News noted on the screen.)

On Wednesday, he said he should have gotten the full story first. ‘I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context,’ he said on ‘The O'Reilly Factor,’ adding that his own words had been taken out of context by critics in the past. ‘I well understand the need for honest reporting.’

— The Los Angeles Times website, July 21, 2010[93]

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External links

Biographies

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