Shirley Sherrod, who lost her federal job last year in a mistaken furor over supposed racism, was honored Tuesday in Atlanta.
State Sen. Robert Brown, D-Macon, gave Sherrod the Hosie Miller Courage Award. The new award was named in honor of Sherrod's father, who was a farmer and community leader in Georgia's Baker County.
"In making this award to Shirley Sherrod for her display of courage, integrity and commitment to justice during the ordeal she endured at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and throughout her life's work, a very high bar is established for future awards," Brown said.
Sherrod was forced from her job after a conservative blogger posted a video of part of a talk she gave telling a story about how, years ago, she was offended by a white farmer's attitude when he asked her to help him avoid losing his farm. She said she considered not helping him. The video left out the rest of her speech, in which she said she overcame her own emotions to help the man. She was accused of racism before the full story came out. She is suing the blogger.
"There are still good people out there. And through the years because of the work I chose to do there are many bumps in the road like this, and you just have to deal with them and not let that make you lose sight of the bigger picture," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "And the bigger picture is that we need to work together to make our communities better."
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