Shirley Sherrod, Director of Rural Development with the USDA abruptly resigned yesterday after Fox News aired video of a speech made recently at an NAACP banquet in which she admitted she did not help a white farmer trying to save his farm with the “full Force” of her power and instead referred him to “one of his own”. A HuffingtonPost blog first posted the speech, then Fox News aired a report. Sherrod says the incident occurred some 24 years ago when she had a totally different attitude about race. She feels she’s been unfairly targeted by conservative groups who are stoking racial tensions following the NAACP’s resolution against the Tea Party. Sherrod told CNN that her hard work is well known and she was being forced to resign.
