On July 19, 2010, Shirley Sherrod was fired from her appointed position as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture.[1][2] Her firing was an administration reaction to media reports on video excerpts from her address to an event of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in March 2010 and commentary posted by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart on his website.[3] Based on these excerpts, the NAACP condemned Sherrod's remarks as racist and US government officials called on the official to resign. However, review of her full speech showed that the excerpts had been selectively edited, and that her remarks – understood in context – were about the importance of overcoming personal prejudices. The NAACP and White House officials then apologized for their earlier criticisms, and United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack apologized for the firing and offered Sherrod a new position.
Extensive media coverage of the excerpted videos, various parties' comments, and later corrections after the full story was discovered, exacerbated the affair. The event brought to the forefront current debates regarding racism in the United States, cable news reporting, ideological websites on the internet, and decisions made by President Barack Obama's administration.[4][5]
The Obama administration apologized to Sherrod, and offered her a full-time, high-level internal advocacy position with the Department of Agriculture,[6][7][8] which she ultimately declined.[9] In 2011, Sherrod filed suit against Breitbart and co-defendant Larry O'Connor for defamation.[10] In 2015, following lengthy pretrial proceedings, Breitbart's death, and efforts by Breitbart's estate to have the suit dismissed which were rejected, the parties settled the suit on undisclosed terms.
^"With Apology, Fired Official Is Offered a New Job". The New York Times. July 21, 2010.
^Montopoli, Brian (July 21, 2010). "Vilsack: I Will Have to Live With Shirley Sherrod Mistake". CBS News.
^Cite error: The named reference Fox20100719 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference BBC News was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Shirley Sherrod blasts Fox News as racist", The Washington Post, July 21, 2010
^Cite error: The named reference LA20100722 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Tumulty, Karen; O'Keefe, Ed (July 22, 2010). "Fired USDA official receives apologies from White House, Vilsack". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
^the CNN Wire Staff (July 23, 2010). "Sherrod: Andrew Breitbart is 'a liar'". CNN.com. Retrieved July 24, 2010. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
^Cite error: The named reference turnsdown was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Zeleny, Jeff; Sarah Wheaton (February 13, 2011). "At Gathering, Ron Paul Is No. 1 for 2012". The New York Times. pp. A21. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
and 20 Related for: Firing of Shirley Sherrod information
2010, ShirleySherrod was fired from her appointed position as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture...
ShirleySherrod (born November 20, 1947) is the Executive Director for the Southwest Georgia Project and Vice President of Development for New Communities...
the mother of Michelle Obama, former first lady of the United States, and Craig Robinson, a basketball executive. She was the mother-in-law of Barack Obama...
off the M7 motorway in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is beside the village of Moneygall, which is just across the county border in County Offaly, and is...
They defeated the Republican ticket of former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. As the incumbent president...
lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago...
economic anthropology and rural development of Indonesia. She was the mother of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Born in Wichita, Kansas...
Barack Obama held a live press conference in which he discussed the prospect of escalating the U.S. military response to the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria...
stepfather of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Soetoro was born in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), the ninth of ten...
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's...
president. Several black people had previously run for president, including Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Lenora Fulani, Carol Moseley Braun, Alan Keyes...
education project in Chicago to commemorate the presidency of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. The center will also include community...
known for being the older half-brother of 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the eldest son of economist Barack Obama Sr. Abon'go Malik...
National Parks". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved July 12, 2022. Davis, Clayton (October 17, 2022). "'Fireof Love' and 'Good Night Oppy'...
Tom (December 21, 2007). "'Stay at home' Barack Obama comes under fire for a lack of foreign experience". Sunday Times (UK). Archived from the original...
2008) was an American banker and the maternal grandmother of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. She and her husband Stanley Armour Dunham...
that Barack Obama secretly practices Islam, or that he is the antichrist of Christian eschatology, or covertly holds some other esoteric religious position...
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995) is a memoir by Barack Obama that explores the events of his early years in Honolulu and Chicago...
commutation of sentence, remission of fine or restitution, and reprieve"—to 1,927 individuals convicted of federal crimes. Of the acts of clemency, 1...
Global Information