Sherrod to meet with USDA; still undecided on return

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Former U.S. Department of Agriculture administrator Shirley Sherrod left on Monday for Washington, D.C., to discuss a new job with the federal agency that ousted her, but said she was uncertain whether she was willing to work there again.

On Tuesday, the Georgia-based Sherrod will meet with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack for the first time since he called for her resignation on July 19.

"I'll decide after I've spoken with him," Sherrod told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A video released online of the black federal worker claiming to have withheld aid from a white farmer because of his race caused controversy, denouncements and confusion. Sherrod's resignation was requested and accepted.

The situation wasn't fully clarified until the AJC reported that the two-minute and 38-second video was edited, omitting Sherrod's admission of how the incident, which happened nearly two decades ago, led to her change of heart on racial matters.

Reached by phone on Monday morning in Albany as she prepared for her series of flights to Washington, D.C., Sherrod said she was unsure about the outcome of the long-awaited meeting but hoped for some closure.

"I just need to have this conversation with him," she said of Vilsack.

Following the revelation that the video, which was recorded in March at a south Georgia NAACP meeting, had been altered, both Vilsack and President Barack Obama contacted Sherrod by phone to offer apologies.

As her story went national and she made several media appearances, Vilsack asked Sherrod to return to the USDA in a special deputy director's role within the agency's outreach and advocacy division.

Vilsack described the job as one that would, among other things, help reverse possible USDA discrimination.

Sherrod and her husband were part of a cooperative of farmers that won a multi-million dollar judgment from the USDA last year stemming from a 1999 discrimination lawsuit filed against the agency by black farmers.

After learning of Vilsack's offer last month, Sherrod told the AJC she didn't want to be held solely responsible for meeting the secretary's goal of alleviating discrimination within the agency.

"You're going to try to put a black person there and put the whole burden of discrimination in USDA on that person," Sherrod said. "So if it doesn't get solved, it's Shirley Sherrod's fault."

On Monday, Sherrod also said she wanted to address funding for the proposed outreach and advocacy division with Vilsack.

"There are some questions about the budget for that position," Sherrod said, though she wouldn't pinpoint specific concerns.

A USDA outreach and advocacy operations statement, which was part of the 2008 U.S. farm bill, showed the division was allotted $1.8 million of its $3 million budget this year to pay salaries and benefits for 15 staffers. Salaries for executive staff averaged $177,200, the statement said.

Just over 10 months ago, Sherrrod was appointed to the job of finding financial assistance for poor Georgia farmers by the White House. Before that, she had held a similar position for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund for nearly 25 years.

Sherrod said she wanted to ask Vilsack why she wasn't offered her old job. Asked if she wanted it back, she hedged.

"I don't know," Sherrod said.

This past weekend at a Federation convention in Birmingham, Ala., Sherrod received an apology from NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who had rushed to condemn her last month before seeing the full video.

More than anything, Sherrod wants her meeting with Vilsack to restore some normalcy to her world.

"I certainly hope to get that," she said. "This has been an eventful month."