Former USDA employee rejects offer to return to agency

Shirley Sherrod, former employee of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture who was fired last month, has refused an opportunity to return to the agency. She was offered the newly-created job of USDA deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. She told CNN she needs to "take a break" from the furor surrounding her dismissal and rejected Vilsack's offer, even though he pushed "really, really hard" to get her to take the job.

She praised "new processes in place" to prevent discrimination and inappropriate firings at the department, but said she doesn't "want to be the one to test it," reports CNN. Sherrod is likely to serve in an unofficial advisory capacity to help address issues related to racism at the department. She said at a press conference, "We need to work on issues (of) discrimination and racism in this country, and I'd certainly like to play my role."

Sherrod was forced to resign after highly edited video of a portion of a speech she made was broadcast by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart on the internet. (Read more)

Sherrod grew up in Southwest Georgia and, as reported by Kathleen Hennessey for the Tribune Washington Bureau, it was not an easy life. Historians describe southwest Georgia as among the most difficult to integrate in the 1960s, writes Hennessey. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. left Albany having accomplished little. The murder of Sherrod's father moved her to spend her life working for racial justice.

Sherrod and her husband Charles Sherrod were among a dozen black families who formed a farming cooperative, New Communities.  Across the South in the 1970s and 1980s, black farmers lost their land and livelihoods while the USDA, historically a safety net for family farms, allowed them to fail. New Communities had applied for a loan from the USDA, but was denied without reason. Eventually, New Communities sold its land and closed.

After a class action lawsuit was filed in 1997, a judge awarded a $2-billion settlement against the USDA for discrimination. In 2009, an arbitrator ruled the department had discriminated against New Communities and  awarded $12.8 million. The Sherrods received $150,000 for "mental anguish."

Shirley Sherrod's life has been inextricably connected to the history of the region, and though her life has not been easy there, she chose to remain. (Read more)