video clip that gave a misleading portrait of her views on race.
Obama and Sherrod spoke for about seven minutes, in
which he mentioned his own exploration of race in his first book,
“Dreams From My Father,”
Obama had been briefed on Sherrod’s firing Tuesday morning and initially supported the decision by Agriculture Secretary
In the morning, the
e-mailed a formal job offer to Sherrod. The position involves civil
rights, though Sherrod is also welcome to return to her old job if she
wants it, according to an Obama administration official.
In a TV interview Thursday morning, Sherrod said she
wasn’t necessarily eager to take a job with her old employer. Her
family, too, said they were wary of seeing her go back to work for the
woman, department undersecretary
Cook had phoned Sherrod on Monday and asked her to
submit her resignation, warning that her story would be shown on the
talk show hosted by Fox’s
Sherrod’s son,
As with many people trying to reach Sherrod, who has
been making the rounds of TV talk shows, the president wasn’t
immediately successful.
Wednesday night but couldn’t reach her and were unable to leave a
message because her voice mailbox was full.
Privately, Obama administration officials have
voiced discomfort with Sherrod’s many TV appearances. The call from the
president came one day after Vilsack apologized to Sherrod and offered
to hire her back. Vilsack said in a news conference he made a terrible
mistake in firing Sherrod based on a short video clip posted on
In fact, the full video of Sherrod’s
appearance showed the opposite — that Sherrod’s dealings with the white
farmer convinced her she needed to help poor people regardless of race.
In describing the new job offer, Vilsack said
Wednesday that Sherrod would be involved in the department’s effort “to
turn the page on our civil rights chapter, which has been difficult.”
Sherrod, perhaps like few others, understands just
how difficult. Black farmers, particularly those in the South, have
long accused department officials of rejecting their loan applications,
refusing aid and ignoring complaints of bias.
are often administered by local officials and for decades were governed
by the racist norms of the segregated south. The discrimination has
hastened the demise of thousands of black-owned farms, advocates say.
Among those was the New Communities, a large nonprofit cooperative farm run by Sherrod and her husband, Rev.
In 1999, the federal government settled a class
action discrimination lawsuit brought by more than 400 black farmers.
In 2009, the Sherrod’s nonprofit was awarded nearly
The Sherrods distributed some of the funds to the
families who had initially farmed the land and they hope to use some
part of to start another similar nonprofit, Sanders said.
Sherrod was appointed the
While this experience with civil rights claims made
her a good job candidate in the eyes of the agriculture secretary, for
conservatives it made her a target — again.
On Thursday, Breitbart’s website posted a recording of a radio interview with Rep.
King, who said that he believed the vast majority of claims filed by
black farmers were fraudulent and he called for a congressional
investigation into the Sherrods’ award.
In a phone interview later, King said he was
suspicious of the size of the award, the type of farm and the timing of
Sherrod’s employment, although he said he had no reason to believe the
Sherrods’ claim was fraudulent.
———
(c) 2010, Tribune Co.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.