NC Black Leadership Caucus Annual Chairman’s Banquet Featuring Keynote Speaker Shirley Sherrod

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NC Black Leadership Caucus Annual Chairman’s Banquet Where: Charlotte Motor Speedway 5555 Concord Parkway South Concord, NC 28027 Driving Directions When: Saturday February 19, 2011 from 6:00 PM to 11:30 PM EST Add to my calendar   Greetings! It’s almost that time of year again when Black Leaders from throughout the state gather to embrace our past, strengthen our present and mobilize for the future.  Join us for the NC Black Leadership Caucus’ Annual Chairman’s Banquet on Saturday, February 19th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Grand Ballroom in Concord, NC.  Please forward this message to a friend. You can purchase tickets online by clicking the ‘Register Now’ link below. Get more information Register Now! I can’t make it   Shirley Sherrod to Keynote NCBLC Chairman’s Banquet Come join the North Carolina Black Leadership Caucus (NCBLC) and former United States Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod for the NCBLC’s Annual Chairman’s Banquet.  Everyone is invited to come hear an inspiring message of upliftment and empowerment to move our communities forward in productive change.   Sherrod, the former Georgia Director for Rural Development for the USDA, has spent a lifetime advocating for civil rights in the South and the rights of Black farmers and farmers of all races that face income inequities.  Described as ‘more than a headline’ by media outlets throughout America, Ms. Sherrod’s efforts to overcome racial divisions in the South came to national attention after she was wrongfully terminated from her position after her comments at a NAACP event were wrongfully reported.   Get your tickets early and join us to hear Shirley Sherrod over dinner followed by an evening of dancing and networking.  Banquet tickets are $50 and available for online purchase until February 5th, 2011.  Proceeds from this event will support NCBLC programming and help to underwrite the operating costs of this volunteer organization. Please print your ticket and  the paypal receipt as confirmation of your purchase and bring to the event.   For more information about the NCBLC or to purchase tickets, please visit www.ncblackleadershipcaucus.com or contact a NCBLC member below:   Purchase Tickets by Mail:   Walter Rogers, Chairman – (910) 462-4104  (Make payable to ‘NC Black Leadership Caucus’, Mail to ‘NCBLC, 9061 Carver School Rd, Laurel Hill NC 28351.’)  Enter quantity of tickets needed in the memo line.   To Become a Sponsor:  Contact Gail Eluwa , Secretary  – (919) 819-0113

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Open letter: Shirley Sherrod former USDA State Director Georgia

Curmilus, Back in March, I delivered a speech to an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet in my home state of Georgia. I drew on my personal life story to urge poor people, white and black, to pull together and overcome racial divisions. We have to understand that our struggle is against poverty and against those who are blocking our path out of poverty. Unless we figure this out, I warned, our communities won’t thrive and our children won’t prosper. As you know, a Tea Party blogger named Andrew Breitbart released an intentionally deceptive, heavily edited clip from that speech to make it look as if I was delivering exactly the opposite message. Then Fox News blasted that false message across America’s airwaves, creating a firestorm that led to my ouster as the USDA State Director here in Georgia. Not long ago, I sat here in my living room in Albany, Georgia for an afternoon of deep conversation with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. As he has done in public, Ben movingly apologized for the fact that the NAACP was initially hoodwinked by Breitbart and Fox into supporting my removal. I told him what I want to tell you. That’s behind us, and the last thing I want to see happen is for my situation to weaken support for the NAACP. Too many people confronted by racism and poverty count on the NAACP to be there for them, especially those in rural areas who often have nowhere else to turn. People ask me, "Shirley, how are you getting through all of this?" I tell them that, if they knew what I have lived through, they’d understand that these current challenges aren’t about to throw me off course. When I was 17 years old, my father was murdered by a white man in Baker County, Georgia. There were three witnesses, but the grand jury refused to indict the person responsible. I knew I had to do something in answer to my father’s death. That very night, I made a commitment that I would stay in the South and fight for change. I have lived true to that commitment for 45 years. I didn’t yield when, just months after my father was killed, they came in the middle of the night to burn a cross in front of our house with my mother, four sisters, and the baby brother my father never got to see still inside. And I’m surely not going to yield because some Tea Party agitator sat at his computer and turned everything I said upside down and inside out. I learned a lot of lessons from my parents growing up, but one of the most important ones is what my mother taught her children after our father was killed. She told us we mustn’t try to live with hate in our hearts. My mother led by example. Just 11 years after that cross-burning incident, she became the first black elected official in Baker County, and she’s still serving, still working to bring people together. You and I have to keep working as well. Change has to start with us. I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support I have received over these last few weeks. It means so much to me and my family. But you and I have to make sure that people all across the country who wage a daily struggle against poverty and racism have support networks as well. And that’s why your personal involvement in sustaining the NAACP is so critical. The NAACP confronts the virulent racism that my family and so many other families have had to endure. But it is also leading the way in breaking down the structural barriers that block so many people’s paths out of poverty. In our struggle between the "haves" and the "have-nots," they want to keep the poor divided – and we have to insist, by our words and our actions, that there is no difference between us. As we move forward together, I urge you to remember this: Life is a grindstone. But whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. Thank you for all you are doing to challenge poverty and racism. I look forward to working and struggling right by your side. Sincerely, Shirley Sherrod

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Shirely Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod to Sue Blogger Andrew Breitbart Over Edited Video

Shirley Sherrod, the fired and subsequently vindicated Department of Agriculture employee, said today she will sue the conservative blogger who posted edited video on the Internet last week that made her appear racist. (Read more @ ABC News)

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CELEBRATE THE DIVA – by William Reed Columnist

A few weeks ago, hardly anyone had ever heard of Shirley Sherrod.  Now, across America hers’ is a household name.  Americans not only know who Sherrod is, they already had an opinion about her based on what they’ve been told about her being a Black federal employee who used her position to discriminate against Whites. Race-baiters framed the issue as Black racist ranting, but the episode provided President Obama and Americans an opportunity to discuss whether race should still play a role in federal and state policy and politics.

In the end, will it just became a case of ‘a job lost, and a job regained’ or can more be done to discuss ways to eliminate the racial disparities that exist in the country?  Irony upon irony, the US Department of Agriculture from which Sherrod was fired for appearing to discriminate, has been the epitome of institutional racism for decades.  Because of America’s agricultural past there is a legacy of institutional racism at USDA.  When Tom Vilsack took over as Secretary, he’d vowed to rectify the USDA’s history of discrimination claims.  The Sherrod case now undergirds Vilsack’s case before the US Senate for funding of a $1.15 billion owed to thousands of African American farmers.  In the settlement Vilsack seeks, the USDA admits bias practices against Black farmers between 1983 and 1997. The case not only shows USDA’s decades-long unfair treatment of African Americans when deciding how to allocate farm loans and disaster payments, but intransigent in settling.

The controversy showed that the nation’s first Black President has no concept of a White House Black Outreach component, as advocated by South Carolina Congressman John Clyburn.  Through lack of sensitivity and investigation President Obama’s administration totally bungled the situation.  They told Vilsack to fire Sherrod for what they thought she said in a speech at an NAACP banquet in March in Georgia.   After firing Sherrod, the light came on in Vilsack’s head causing him to call her the next day to ask that she consider taking a new post that would make use of her unique set of experiences.  The former Governor of Idaho said "I want to renew the commitment of this department to a new era in civil rights."

Surely Ms. Sherrod can help USDA right its wrongs, but the job being offered should be more in the $125,000 salary range than the Schedule C $85,000 she was earning as USDA Georgia State Director for Rural Development.  Miss Shirley has over four decades doing rural development and could tell the “Chicago Organizer” a thing or two “She has had an amazing impact on the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of families and communities throughout the South” says former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Ms. Sherrod is a Kellogg National Fellow and has well established credentials eradicating historical race, class, cultural, religious and gender barriers experienced by southern rural Black women.  She is a role model in advocacy, organizing and implementation of rural development programs and projects.  In 1965, with SNCC’s Southwest Georgia Project, Ms. Sherrod helped to start New Communities Inc. land trust. She organized rural women’s childcare/preschool programs throughout southwest Georgia.  Ms. Shirley Miller Sherrod has received a host of awards, but the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Albany Alumnae Chapter’s “Community Role Model Award” probably says it all about who she is and what she does.  

It’s just a job for the moment, but credit should be given to Secretary Vilsack for the move he made.   Barack should follow suit with somebody like Shirley.  John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association says “The incident is an opportunity for Obama to take a stronger look at race relations in the country.  Cynthia McKinney, a long-time Black Farmers advocate, says “The Shirley Sherrod episode shows how quickly this administration is to throw legitimate Black interests under the bus”. 

Obama should be like Secretary Vilsack and put somebody like Sherrod close by.  She said of Obama: "I’d like to help him see some of the things that he could do in the future."

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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Shirley Sherrod: Obama Administration Too Sensitive to the Right – Source: CBS News

The debacle over Shirley Sherrod’s ouster from the USDA reveals the White House’s misplaced sensitivity to conservative criticism, Sherrod told CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford today.

"This administration is definitely too sensitive to what the right is saying," Sherrod said in an interview this morning. "I definitely think the right has actually edited speeches that have been made to try and get their point over, when they know it’s a lie." (Read more @ CBS News)

Note: It is damn shame that since the Obama Administration has take office we are experiencing ignance at it’s best. It appears that since we have a black President that some folks have set out to not only destroy his character but other blacks in position at any level. The sad part is we are allowing these folks to take our focus off of the real thing and allowing them to lead. Oh hell no, while this administration is office I am going to hold them accountable for their actions just like I have those before now. At the end of the day, I will either vote for or against the administration. What I refuse to allow is for the tea party and those who think like them to mislead me. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

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Vilsack, White House apologize to former USDA official – CNN

Washington (CNN) — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he apologized to Shirley Sherrod for forcing her to resign based on incomplete and misleading reports of a speech she gave.

Vilsack told reporters that he alone made the decision regarding Sherrod, with no White House involvement.

He spoke to Sherrod earlier Wednesday and said he asked for her forgiveness, which she gave. Vilsack also said he offered Sherrod another job in the department, and she was taking a few days to think about it. (Read more @ CNN)

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The Damn Tea Party Strikes Again, Lies On A Black Woman USDA Employee That Got Her Fired But Look At This Touching Video

The video of Shirley Sherrod released by Andrew Brietbart’s Big Government Blog on July 19 didn’t tell the full story. It was selectively edited to cast her in a negative light. Here is the video, shot by the local NAACP unit that hosted Ms. Sherrod. Watch the video, and judge for yourself. Read the NAACP Statement. (Watch The Video In Full)

Note: This is one of the most touching and powerful speeches that I have ever heard. For a woman who lost her dad to racism and she herself fought in the struggle, she is very compassionate for all people. She said it not I. Damn many folks would be so angry today after all that she has gone through. It is a damn shame that these ignant folks are allowed to lie on black folks and get away with it. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

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Tea Party