Shirley Sherrod (born November 20, 1947^[2]) is the Executive Director for the Southwest Georgia Project and Vice President of Development for New Communities at Cypress pond.^[3] Sherrod is a civil rights activist who has devoted most of her life advocating for farmers and rural residents. Sherrod has been the recipient of various praises such as; The Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Sojourner-Douglas College, being inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame, and awarded the James Beard Leadership Award.^[4]

This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, as it is using tables instead of sentences. (April 2024)

Quick Facts Born, Education ...

Shirley Sherrod
Sherrod in 2016
Born	Shirley Miller November 20, 1947 Newton-Baker County, Georgia, U.S.
Education	Fort Valley State University Albany State University Antioch University (M.A.), community development, 1989[1]
Occupation(s)	Executive Director for the Southwest Georgia Project and Vice President of Development for New Communities at Cypress Pond
Known for	Civil Rights Activist
Spouse	Charles Sherrod
Parent(s)	Grace and Hosie Miller

Close

Sherrod (née Miller) was born in 1948 in Baker County, Georgia, to Grace and Hosie Miller.^[5][6] In 1965, when she was 17 years old, her father, a deacon at the local Baptist Church, was shot dead by a white farmer, reportedly over a dispute about livestock.^[6] No charges were returned against the shooter by an all-white grand jury.^[6] This was a turning point in her life and led her to feel that she should stay in the South to bring about change.^[6] Several months after Miller's murder, a cross was burned at night in front of the Miller family's residence with Grace Miller and her four daughters, including Shirley, and infant son, born after her husband's killing, inside.^[7]

That same year, Sherrod was among the first black students to enroll in the previously all-white high school in Baker County.^[5] Eleven years later, Grace Miller became the first black woman elected to a county office, one she continued to hold, as of 2010^[update].^[7]

Sherrod attended Fort Valley State College^[5] and later studied sociology at Albany State University in Georgia while working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement where she met her future husband, minister Charles Sherrod.^[6][8] She went on to Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she earned her master's degree in community development.^[6] She returned to Georgia to work with the Department of Agriculture in Georgia "to help negro farmers keep their land."^[6]

In 1969, Sherrod and her husband were among the U.S. civil rights and land collective activists co-founding New Communities, a collective farm in Southwest Georgia^[13][9][17] modeled on kibbutzim in Israel.^[6][18] According to scholarship by land trust activists Susan Witt and Robert Swann, New Communities' founding in 1969 by individuals such as the Sherrods connected to the Albany Movement^[17] served as a laboratory and model in a movement toward the development of Community Land Trusts throughout the U.S.: "The perseverance and foresight of that team in Georgia, motivated by the right of African-American farmers to farm land securely and affordably, initiated the CLT movement in this country."^[19]

Located in Lee County, Georgia, the 5,700-acre (23 km²) project was one of the largest tracts of black-owned land in the U.S.^[18][20] The project soon encountered difficulties in the opposition of area white farmers, who accused participants of being communists,^[6] and also from segregationist Democratic Governor Lester Maddox, who prevented development funds for the project from entering the state.^[18] A drought in the 1970s and inability to get government loans led to the project's ultimate demise in 1985.^[6]

On July 19, 2010, Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign from her USDA position^[22] after blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a selectively-edited video of Sherrod's address to a March 2010 NAACP event onto his website. Reacting to these video excerpts, the NAACP condemned her remarks and U.S. government officials called on her to resign. However, upon review of the complete, unedited video in full context, the NAACP, White House officials, and Tom Vilsack, the United States secretary of agriculture, apologized for the firing, and Sherrod was offered a new position with the USDA.^[23][24]

In February 2011, Sherrod filed a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart and co-defendant Larry O'Connor in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia; in her complaint, Sherrod accused Breitbart of defamation, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress.^[25] Following Breitbart's death in 2012, Breitbart's estate was substituted as a defendant.^[26]

The defendants removed the case to federal court.^[27] The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, who repeatedly expressed frustration with the U.S. government's delays in providing discovery.^[26][28] In July 2014, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned Judge Leon's order directing Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack to give a deposition as part of pretrial discovery.^[29] Sherrod was represented by the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.^[26]

In October 2015, the parties reached a settlement on undisclosed terms, issuing a joint statement saying: "The parties regret the harm that Mrs. Sherrod suffered as a result of these events. In a gesture they hope will inspire others to engage in the difficult but critically important process of bridging racial divides, the parties have agreed to resolve this lawsuit on confidential terms."^[26]