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Sherrod's Father Killed by White Farmer

Shooter was never prosecuted; Shirley became civil rights activist at 17

By Caroline Miller, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 22, 2010 11:36 AM CDT

(Newser) – Shirley Sherrod's commitment to fighting injustice was sparked by the fatal shooting of her father, a black farmer, by a white farmer in 1965, in what was described as a spat over some cows. Sherrod was 17 when her father died—and an all-white grand... Read full story »

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discrimination • race relations • USDA • civil rights • Department of Agriculture • Shirley Sherrod

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Sherrod 'Needs to Think' About New Job Offer

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(NEWSER) - Shirley Sherrod has been offered a new job by the USDA, but says she needs to think about it. “I’m not so sure that going back to the department is the thing to do,” she told CNN . She said the job was “something in civil rights with the Office of Outreach,” but that she “would not want to be the one person at USDA that’s responsible for issues of discrimination within the agency.” More»

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(NEWSER) - Ten months after being forced out of the USDA, Shirley Sherrod is back. But Sherrod, who rejected an offer to return shortly after the Andrew Breitbart brouhaha, will have a new position as a contract employee, Politico reports. She will lead one of three field programs meant to improve the USDA's abysmal civil rights record and strengthen relations between the department and minority farmers after years of discrimination claims by minorities. Sherrod had said last year that she would need to see that the USDA was serious about civil rights issues before returning. More»

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(NEWSER) - Just a month after she was unceremoniously hustled out the revolving doors at the Agriculture Department, Shirley Sherrod has declined an invitation back in. Sherrod met this morning with Tom Vilsack, who offered her a position aimed at improving the USDA's civil rights record. Sherrod said that while she was open to consulting, "I just don't think at this point with all that has happened" that a full-time return would be wise, reports the AP. More»

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(NEWSER) - The wife of the white farmer at the heart of the Shirley Sherrod controversy has come forward, saying she considers Sherrod her “friend for life.” Backstory: Sherrod lost her job over a video clip in which she said she hadn’t done all she could to help the farmer keep his farm because he spoke condescendingly to her. But the farmer’s wife, 82-year-old Eloise Spooner, tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that in reality, Sherrod did save their farm and “kept us out of bankruptcy.” More»

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(NEWSER) - An Agriculture Department employee has been forced to resign over an old video in which she says she didn’t do all she could to help a white farmer, because he was white. In the video, which first appeared on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government , Shirley Sherrod, the director of rural development for Georgia, is seen speaking before an NAACP rally. She says she’d decided not to give a white farmer “the full force of what I could do to help him.” More»

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Sherrod's Father Killed by White Farmer

Shooter was never prosecuted; Shirley became civil rights activist at 17

discrimination • race relations • USDA • civil rights • Department of Agriculture • Shirley Sherrod

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More Newser Stories

Sherrod 'Needs to Think' About New Job Offer

She's not sure how serious they are about civil rights at USDA

Shirley Sherrod Back at USDA

But rather than return to old position, she will work on civil rights

Shirley Sherrod to USDA: No, Thanks

Ousted official declines return to Ag Dept

Farmer's Wife: Fired USDA Official Saved Us

Supposed racism victim defends her

USDA Employee Resigns Over 'Racist' Video

Sherrod says she didn't do all she could to help white farmer

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