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<H1>NAACP 'snookered' over video of former USDA employee</H1>
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<DIV class=cnnbyline>By <B>the CNN Wire Staff</B></DIV>
<DIV class=cnn_strytmstmp></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><B>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</B></DIV>
<UL class="cnn_bulletbin cnnstryhghlght">
<LI><B><B>NEW:</B></B> NAACP president tweets that he has apologized to
Shirley Sherrod</LI>
<LI><B>NEW:</B> Farmer says Sherrod helped save the farm</LI>
<LI><B>NEW:</B> Conservative publisher says story is "about NAACP attacking
the Tea Party"</LI>
<LI>Sherrod says her remarks were taken out of context</LI></UL></DIV></DIV>
<P><B>Atlanta, Georgia (CNN)</B> -- The NAACP has retracted its original
statement condemning comments made by a former Agriculture Department official
who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer.</P>
<P>The NAACP said in a statement Tuesday that it was "snookered by Fox News" and
conservative website publisher Andrew Breitbart.</P>
<P>"Having reviewed the full tape by Shirley Sherrod, who is the woman who was
fired by the Department of Agriculture, and most importantly heard the testimony
of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe that the
organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving
millions of Americans," the statement from NAACP President Benjamin Jealous
said.</P>
<P>Jealous later posted on his Twitter account that he "Spoke to Ms. Sherrod
earlier today and personally apologized. Plan to meet with her face-to-face the
next time I'm in Georgia."</P>
<P>The organization also urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reconsider
Sherrod's resignation from her post as the department's director of rural
development for Georgia.</P>
<P>Breitbart originally posted the video, which was quickly picked up by Fox
News.</P>
<P>In the video, Sherrod, can be heard telling an audience at a March 27, 2009,
appearance before a local chapter of the NAACP that she had not given a white
farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him save the family farm.</P>
<P>Conservative media outlets tied the video to the NAACP's recent resolution
calling on the Tea Party movement to repudiate racist elements within it that
have displayed such items as images of President Obama with a bone through his
nose and the White House with a lawn full of watermelons. The controversy has
led one Tea Party group to oust another because of a blog posting by the second
group's leader.</P>
<P>Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams posted on his blog a faux letter from
Jealous to President Abraham Lincoln in which Williams ridicules the
organization's use of "colored" in its historic name and uses multiple
stereotypes to bolster his point. The National Tea Party Foundation expelled
Williams' organization from its coalition as a result.</P>
<P>Breitbart told CNN's "John King USA" on Tuesday that releasing the video was
"not about Shirley Sherrod."</P>
<P>"This was about the NAACP attacking the Tea Party, and this is showing racism
at an NAACP event," he said. "I did not ask for Shirley Sherrod to be
fired."</P>
<P>Sherrod defended herself in a number of interviews Tuesday, saying her
controversial comments were taken out of context. She had, she said, used a
personal experience from nearly a quarter century ago in which she confronted
her own racism and learned to move beyond it.</P>
<P>She insisted she "went all out" to help the man keep his farm and said she
resigned only under pressure from the Obama administration, telling CNN she
received four phone calls Monday telling her the White House wanted her to step
down.</P>
<P>"They asked me to resign, and in fact they harassed me as I was driving back
to the state office from West Point, Georgia, yesterday," she said. The last
call "asked me to pull to the side of the road and do it [resign]," she
said.</P>
<P>Vilsack told CNN on Tuesday that he "didn't speak to anyone at the White
House. ... I made this decision, it's my decision. Nobody from the White House
contacted me about this at all."</P>
<P>A White House official also told CNN that "the White House did not pressure
her or the USDA over the resignation. It was the secretary's decision, as he has
said."</P>
<P>President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation after Vilsack decided to
seek Sherrod's resignation, according to a White House official, who said the
president fully supports the decision.</P>
<P>Sherrod said Tuesday that the incident with the farmer in 1986 occurred
before she started work for the USDA and was working at the nonprofit Federation
of Southern Cooperatives. She said the experience helped her learn to move
beyond race and she tells the story to audiences to make that point.</P>
<P>Meanwhile, the farmer referenced in the clip told CNN he credits Sherrod with
helping his family save their farm.</P>
<P>"I don't know what brought up the racist mess," Roger Spooner told CNN's
"Rick's List." "They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my
opinion."</P>
<P>Spooner says Sherrod accompanied him and his wife to a lawyer in Americus,
Georgia, who was able to help them file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which
ultimately saved their farm.</P>
<P>"If it hadn't been for her, we would've never known who to see or what to
do," he said. "She led us right to our success."</P>
<P>Spooner's wife, Eloise, remembered Sherrod as "nice-mannered, thoughtful,
friendly; a good person."</P>
<P>She said that when she saw the story of the tape and Sherrod's resignation on
television, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.' "</P>
<P>The poor-quality video shows Sherrod telling her audience that the farmer she
was working with "took a long time ... trying to show me he was superior to me."
As a result, she said, she "didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I
did enough."</P>
<P>To prove she had done her job, she said, she took him to a white lawyer. "I
figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of
him," she said.</P>
<P>But that lawyer failed to help, she said. "I did not discriminate against
[the farmer]. And, in fact, I went all out to frantically look for a lawyer at
the last minute because the first lawyer we went to was not doing anything to
really help him. In fact, that lawyer suggested they should just let the farm
go." She was able to find an attorney to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy to help the
family stay on the farm, she said.</P>
<P>Sherrod said she first heard of the possible controversy when someone
e-mailed her Thursday to taunt her about her comments. She immediately forwarded
the e-mail to the USDA so the agency would be aware. She was told that someone
would look into it.</P>
<P>She said it wasn't until Monday that she heard back, and by then, she was
being asked for her resignation.</P>
<P>Sherrod said she got four calls Monday from Cheryl Cook, the USDA rural
development undersecretary. In the first, she said, she was told she was being
put on administrative leave. In the second, she said, she was told she needed to
resign.</P>
<P>Asked if she felt she had an opportunity to explain, Sherrod said, "No, I
didn't. The administration, they were not interested in hearing the truth. No
one wanted to hear the truth."</P>
<P>Vilsack said Tuesday that the controversy, regardless of the context of her
comments, "compromises the director's ability to do her job."</P>
<P>"This isn't a situation where we are necessarily judgmental about the content
of the statement, that's not the issue here. I don't believe this woman is a
racist at all," he said. "She's a political appointee, and her job is basically
to focus on job growth in Georgia, and I have deep concern about her ability to
do her job without her judgments being second-guessed."</P>
<P>Ralph Paige, executive director of the nonprofit Sherrod worked for before
being appointed to the USDA job in 2009, told CNN on Tuesday that she garnered
only praise and there were never any claims of discrimination against her.</P>
<P>"I can't praise Shirley enough," he said. "She holds no malice in her
heart."</P>
<P>Vilsack issued a statement Monday announcing he had accepted Sherrod's
resignation, noting a "zero tolerance" policy for discrimination at the USDA,
adding, "I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person."</P>
<P>The first statement that the NAACP issued late Monday backed Vilsack's
decision.</P>
<P>"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."</P>
<P>Sherrod said the NAACP did not contact her before issuing the first
statement. She said she got a phone call from an NAACP representative in
Washington on Tuesday afternoon telling her another statement would be issued
once the full tape was reviewed.</P>
<P>"I told him I was highly disappointed that they would make a statement
without even looking into it," she said.</P>
<P>In the statement issued Tuesday evening, the NAACP reversed its condemnation
after viewing the full video.</P>
<P>"She was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and
redemption," the statement said. "In the full video, Ms. Sherrod says she
realized that the dislocation of farmers is about 'haves and have nots.' 'It's
not just about black people, it's about poor people,' says Sherrod in the
speech. 'We have to get to the point where race exists but it doesn't matter.'
"</P>
<P>Earlier Tuesday, Sherrod called the NAACP "the reason why this happened. They
got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of
that."</P>
<P>She called the ensuing controversy "unbelievable."</P>
<P>"I think any moment I'm going to wake up and none of this is happening, but
it is," she said.</P>
<P class=cnninline>"When you spend your life helping others and see people try
to turn that around to try to make it look like you're a racist when that's not
been what your life has been about -- that doesn't feel good."</P>
<P class=cnn_strycbftrtxt><B>CNN's Tristan Smith, Joneil Adriano and Suzanne
Malveaux contributed to this report.</B></P></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ophite@gmail.com href="mailto:ophite@gmail.com">Andreas Schou</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vpschwaller@gmail.com
href="mailto:vpschwaller@gmail.com">Glenn Schwaller</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, July 20, 2010 3:17
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] Say Whut?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Glenn --<BR><BR>The video is edited to give exactly the
opposite impression that the<BR>speaker intended to give. Additionally, the
story is set twenty-four<BR>years in the past, not in her current
job.<BR><BR>-- ACS<BR><BR>On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Glenn Schwaller
<<A href="mailto:vpschwaller@gmail.com">vpschwaller@gmail.com</A>>
wrote:<BR>> (“I was) faced with having to help a white farmer save his
farm. . . I<BR>> was struggling with the fact that so many black people had
lost their<BR>> farmland, and here I was faced with having to help a white
person save<BR>> their land. I didn't give him the full force of what I
could do."<BR>> Shirley Sherrod, USDA, Georgia<BR>><BR>>
GS<BR>><BR>>
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