Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod (born November 20, 1947 ) is an American civil rights activist and former USDA Rural Development director for the state of Georgia. She is currently the executive director for the Southwest Georgia Project and Vice President of Development for New Communities at Cypress pond. Sherrod has devoted most of her life advocating for farmers and rural residents. Sherrod has been the recipient of various honors such as receiving Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Sojourner-Douglas College, being inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame. In 2018, she was the recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award.

Early life Sherrod (née Miller) was born in 1948 in Baker County, Georgia, to Grace and Hosie Miller. She went on to Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she earned her master's degree in community development. Awarded for integrity and courage in public service. 2011 Inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame. 2018 Awarded the James Beard Leadership Award. Awarded for her willingness to stay and fight, to find ways to help those with less power. and also from segregationist Democratic Governor Lester Maddox, who prevented development funds for the project from entering the state. after blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a selectively-edited video of Sherrod's address to a March 2010 NAACP event onto his website. Reacting to these video excerpts, the NAACP condemned her remarks and U.S. government officials called on her to resign. However, upon review of the complete, unedited video in full context, the NAACP, White House officials, and Tom Vilsack, the United States secretary of agriculture, apologized for the firing, and Sherrod was offered a new position with the USDA.

Lawsuit against Breitbart and O'Connor and settlement In February 2011, Sherrod filed a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart and co-defendant Larry O'Connor in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia; in her complaint, Sherrod accused Breitbart of defamation, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Following Breitbart's death in 2012, Breitbart's estate was substituted as a defendant.

The defendants removed the case to federal court. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, who repeatedly expressed frustration with the U.S. government's delays in providing discovery. In July 2014, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned Judge Leon's order directing Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack to give a deposition as part of pretrial discovery. Sherrod was represented by the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.