Ex USDA Worker Said White House Forced Me To Resign On Trumped Up Racial Controversy:Black officer who resigned from the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday said that the White House made her comments after she said caused fabricated racial controversy.Shirley Sherrod, a former director of the Georgia Rural Development, said that she received a phone call from the Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture Cheryl Cook on Monday, when she was in the car. Cook said that the White House wanted to call it quits now.
"They called me twice," Sherrod told the Associated Press. "The last time they asked me to pull off the road and to submit his resignation on my Blackberry, and what I did."
The dispute began after a few organizations, the media published a 38-second video Sherrod speaking to the local branch of the Georgia NAACP. She says that the group did not produce a white farmer "in full force, what can I do" after he asked for help.
Videos surfaced days after the NAACP had quarreled with tea party members in connection with accusations of racism.
Sherrod said that her statements were taken out of context.
"My point of telling this story is that working with him helped me to understand that this is not black and white issue," she said. Sherrod added that the incident occurred in 1986, before she worked in the Department of Agriculture.
Sherrod said she eventually became friends with a farmer and worked with him for two years to help them avoid foreclosure.
A woman who says she is the wife of a farmer links to the video told media Sherrod helped her family keep their farm. Eloise Spooner Sherrod described as "getting there and do what it can do to help us."
National NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous, supports the resignation, saying that the organization has a zero tolerance policy.
"According to her observations, she treated white farmers in need of assistance because of his race," he said in his speech at Sherrod explained.
"We are shocked by her actions, as we have with abuse of power against farmers of color and women farmers.
