USDA worker quits over 1986 racial incident

A U.S. Agriculture Department official from Georgia resigned late Monday after she was caught on tape admitting that 24 years ago she did not help a white farmer as much as she could have because of his race.

Shirley Sherrod, USDA state director of rural development, made the remarks on March 27 at an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet. Her videotaped remarks surfaced online on Monday.

Sherrod reminded the crowd that black farmers have faced years of discrimination and difficulty saving their farmland. She recounted the story of a white farmer who visited her asking for assistance keeping his farm.

"Here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land," she said (see above). "So, I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough so that when he, I assumed the Department of Agriculture had sent him to me. Either that or the Georgia Department of Agriculture. He needed to go back and report that I did try to help him."

As Sherrod tells the story of denying aid to the white farmer, she explains that she ultimately realized her mistake, but did not give any indication that she had rectified the situation.

The incident took place in 1986 when she was working for a nonprofit group and long before she joined USDA, Sherrod said Tuesday.

"I was speaking to that group, like I've done many groups, and I tell them about a time when I thought the issue was race and race only," she said in an interview on CNN. "I was telling the story of how working with him helped me to see the issue is not about race. It's about those who have versus those who do not have."

The white farmer, his wife and Sherrod later wound up as friends, she said.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appointed Sherrod to her post in July 2009 and accepted her resignation on Monday.

"There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person," Vilsack said in a statement. "We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously."

It was not immediately clear if Sherrod was given an opportunity to explain her remarks to USDA officials or Vilsack before she resigned. A USDA spokesman did not immediately return requests for further clarification.

NAACP President and Benjamin Jealous issued a strongly worded statement condemning Sherrod Monday night, before she told CNN that the incident occurred before she worked for USDA.

"Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race," Jealous said.

"We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers," he added.

Jealous said Sherrod's behavior "is even more intolerable in light of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's well documented history of denying opportunities to African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American farmers, as well as female farmers of all races."

The NAACP's comments come days after it denounced what it called "racist elements" of the Tea Party movement.

Black, Hispanic, Native American and female farmers have large discrimination lawsuits pending against USDA. Black farmers have been awarded a settlement worth $1 billion for similar claims of discrimination.

Sherrod previously served as Georgia director of the Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund and has worked with other rural and women's groups. Her office is part of USDA's Rural Development program, which administers more than $114 billion in loans and loan guarantees. It is part of a larger network that manages more than 40 housing, business and community infrastructure programs at about 500 state, local and federal offices nationwide.