ATLANTA (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants help with minority outreach from a former official in Georgia who was ousted in a racial flap and later received an apology from President Barack Obama, a department spokesman said Saturday.
The administration has been in talks with Shirley
Sherrod, who resigned last year as Georgia's director of rural development,
said Justin DeJong, a spokesman for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The USDA
is discussing whether Sherrod and her nonprofit, The Southwest Georgia Project
for Community Education Inc., are willing to conduct outreach on a contract
basis, DeJong said. A final decision has not been reached.
"She and her organization have been committed
to breaking down barriers and promoting equal opportunity," DeJong said.
Sherrod confirmed that she had spoken with federal
officials but said she still needs more details about the work before making a
decision.
"We really haven't gone into any deep
conversations yet," she said. "If there's something I can do to help
with the problem of discrimination within USDA and see how I can do that, then
I'm open to looking at it."
Earlier this week, Vilsack's department released a
government-commissioned study that found the Agriculture Department is still
plagued by civil rights problem that in the past led to unequal treatment of
minorities seeking loans and other help. Discrimination was deemed most acute
at the Farm Service Agency, which is responsible for delivering farm loans and
other programs to rural residents.
Vilsack's department wants to use community
organizations to make sure federal funding is reaching people who have
historically complained of discrimination.
Sherrod was forced to resign her post last year
when a conservative blogger posted an edited video showing remarks that Sherrod
made at an NAACP meeting.
The video recorded Sherrod, who is black, telling
of initially giving short shrift a quarter-century ago to a white farmer
seeking financial help. Blogger Andrew Breitbart omitted from the video
Sherrod's explanation that she realized her mistake and helped the man save his
farm. She later received apologies from Vilsack and Obama, who asked her to
return.
Sherrod has sued Breitbart for defamation and
inflicting emotional distress. The blogger has said he released the video to
demonstrate racism within the NAACP. In a statement that did not mention
Sherrod by name, Breitbart said he "rejects the transparent effort to
chill his constitutionally protected free speech."
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/John Bazemore)
