by Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA News Service

Hazel Trice Edney

WASHINGTON – At NNPA deadline this week, there was one thing perfectly clear in just about all of fair-thinking America. That is that former Department of Agriculture Rural Development Director Shirley Sherrod of South West Georgia had been hit and devastated by so-called “friendly fire”.

She and her husband, the Rev. Charles Sherrod, actually marched and organized alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, the NNPA News Service has learned. Rev. Sherrod was one of the first field workers from the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to be sent to Albany, Ga. around 1961.

In a New York Times article published Nov. 5, 2008, the day after the Obama election, Rev. Sherrod was quoted as saying, “This is what we prayed for, this is what we worked for …We have a legitimate chance to be a democracy.”

Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod’s father, a farmer, was killed by a white farmer in front of at least three witnesses more than 40 years ago. But, a jury refused to indict him amidst the thick racism during that era.

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

Sherrod, in just 24 hours, became almost a household name across America, criticism surrounding her. At NNPA deadline, the ending could best be described by the war term “friendly fire”, meaning she has been damaged by her own fellow soldiers in the battle against racism in America.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had offered Sherrod a department position dealing with civil rights, an option she was considering. As the truth slowly unfolded with the release of the full video in context, rapid back-peddling took place and apologies were flowing.

“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,” said an NAACP release from President Ben Jealous Tuesday night.

“Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmer mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.”

The story was first reported by FOX News based on the tape released by Breitbart.

More important even than the NAACP statement of apology were the statements made by the white farmer himself, 88-year-old Roger Spooner, and his wife Eloise, live on CNN:

“I couldn’t believe it. She was unbelievably helpful in every way. She saved our farm,” Roger Spooner said. “This all here is a bunch of hogwash in my opinion. She was as nice to us as anyone could have been. As far as racism and all, that’s just ridiculous.”

In the complete NAACP video, viewed by the NNPA News Service, Sherrod  tells the story of working for a local agency 24 years ago, long before she ever went to work for the USDA. She tells how her helping the white farmer even after her father’s murder and amidst a climate where black farmers were disparately suffering because of their race, ultimately helped her to realize that it’s not really about black or white, but about the poor – “those who have and do not have.”  

She told how she decided then to give her life to helping the poor of all races. The tape had been edited and distorted to make her appear to say that she intentionally withheld help from the White farmer – later proven to be blatantly false.

The Sherrods could not be reached by deadline as their voice mail was constantly full.

As the saga of Shirley Sherrod continued, the NNPA News Service sought to learn more about her and her family. A simple Google search pulled up the New York Times story quoting her husband. And a simple phone call to sources in South West Georgia brought testimonies of the sparkling – even heroic – reputation of Shirley Sherrod and her family.

Juanita Wright of Albany recalled that she was a teenager when she used to hold Shirley Sherrod in her arms as a baby as their families were friends. Wright, who actually attended the funeral of Sherrod’s father, also remembered the family’s suffering.  She said Sherrod’s mother, Grace, was pregnant when her husband was murdered. She even visited her home after the funeral.

“She was about full term with the baby. She wasn’t able to go to the funeral. I’ll never forget how she was crying,” Wright said. About the false allegations against Sherrod, Wright said, “I never thought anybody would say anything like that. She’s not a racist. Her father fought that and also her aunt and her mother, they fought racism.”

Perhaps a quote that Sherrod recalled from her mother sums up the heart of the matter:  

“If we’d tried to live with hate in our hearts, we’d probably be dead now.’”

She concluded in the CNN interview, “It’s not about race. It’s about poor people and those who have and those who do not. I was encouraging them to get beyond race.… I tried to use my life to help people to see that if I could move beyond race… if I could move beyond that to a life of service, then we all could do it.”

(Hazel Trice Edney is NNPA News Service editor-in-chief.)