By Hazel Trice Edney

NNPA Editor-in-Chief

WASHINGTON 

Former Department of Agriculture Rural Development Director Shirley Sherrod of South West Georgia, still reeling from the blow of an assault on her job, character and civil rights record last week, told the Black Press of America that she hopes the travesty of justice that happened to her will now help America move forward with racial healing.

She and her husband, the Rev. Charles Sherrod, a leading civil rights organizer, who actually marched and organized alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from 1961 and was arrested five times during the civil rights movement, spoke in separate phone interviews with the NNPA News Service. The Sherrods, who reside in Albany, Ga.,  reflected on the pains of the past as well as the meaning of the recent attack and how they have been long prepared for it. That includes Mrs. Sherrod having suffered the shooting death of her father at the hands of a Klansman more than 40 years ago. 

The highly respected civil rights and racial justice work of this couple underscored the irony last week as she was forced to resign by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack because of a distorted and edited videotaped version of a March 2010 speech to NAACP in which she was made to appear as if she had discriminated against a White farmer. 

In a nutshell, Obama appointee Secretary Vilsack fired her without first hearing the context of the remarks. The videotaped remarks out of context were also condemned by the NAACP, whose president, Ben Jealous, later said in a statement of apology that they were “snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart”, the blogger who released the edited video out of context.

But, as the truth was revealed by the release of the full video, Sherrod not only received public apologies from Vilsack and an offer of employment back at Agriculture – an offer that she was still considering at NNPA deadline this week – but she also received a phone call from President Obama himself who she said expressed heartfelt regrets.

The heroes in the midst of the storm of criticism were the White farmer himself, 88-year-old Roger Spooner, and his wife Eloise, who appeared live on CNN. They rebuked all who had condemned Sherrod.

Wanna Read The Entire Story??? Well Call Us Today and Subscribe to the New Journal and Guide, 757-543-6531.