Shirley Sherrod was the keynote speaker at the Central United Methodist annual dinner in Detroit on Dec. 5, 2010. She is seated next to the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the gala affair held at the Renaissance Center downtown. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe)
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Civil rights activist and farm advocate tells her own story to over 500
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Photos by Abayomi Azikiwe
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DETROIT—Shirley Sherrod’s visit to Detroit was a special occasion for the over 500 people who attended the annual dinner of the Central United Methodist Church located downtown. The church is celebrating its 200th anniversary and its sixth yearly dinner which serves as a gathering for social justice activists and political officials from throughout the region and the country.
Sherrod, who began as an activist during her teenage years in southwest Georgia, attracted international attention when she was unjustly terminated by the Obama administration’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack after she was falsely accused of racism against white farmers. The allegations were based on a deceptively edited videotape issued by a right-wing blogger.
Within one day after the termination of Sherrod as the Georgia State Director of Rural Development, the video was exposed as a hoax. In actuality the speech captured in the video by Sherrod to a NAACP gathering, was a reflection of the former official’s transformation in outlook related to the plight of family farms in the southern United States.
The incident proved to be an enormous embarrassment to the Obama administration prompting statements from people within the African American community that he was out of touch with the character of race relations and the mass media. After a flurry of interviews on national news programs for several days, she was re-offered a position within the Agricultural Department which she eventually refused.
Sherrod reiterated in her address at the dinner held in the Renaissance Center downtown, that what was so amazing about the allegations of racism directed against her by conservatives, was that her family were direct victims of racism due to the oppression faced by African Americans in the South and the fact that her own father was killed by a white neighbor in 1965 when she was a senior in high school.
The white farmer had apparently taken some cows from Sherrod’s father’s property and when he went to resolve the issue, he was shot in the back and killed. The white farmer was never prosecuted for the crime.
Sherrod noted that at the time she became committed to remaining in the South and working to overcome racism and oppression. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and would later marry fellow activist Charles Sherrod of SNCC and the Freedom Singers.
The civil rights activist attended Fort Valley State College and then transferred to Albany State to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. She would later earn a Master’s in Community Development from Antioch University.
She would work for the Rural Development Leadership Network as a farm advocate until she resigned to join the Obama administration. She said that prior to taking the position she was subjected to a thorough investigation by the FBI.
“I heard from people in my old neighborhood that FBI agents had come asking questions about my background. Even after I was sworn into the position, investigations continued,” Sherrod said.
She also said that “despite all of this, they still did not know who they really had. “
She discussed the Secretary of Agriculture’s offer to resume work with the department.
“When I asked how much the budget was it was less than the one I had before joining the administration. When I asked what money would be available do any real work, he couldn’t give me a clear answer.”
Sherrod said that she made a decision not to accept the position. “I vowed not to just walk away from this, but to continue to advocate on behalf of the have-nots. It’s not about race but about those who have and those who have-not.”
Significance of Event for Central Church
Central United Methodist Church was an ideal platform for Shirley Sherrod to make such a presentation. The church has been a base of operation and support for various movements and programs to aid the oppressed and downtrodden.
The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would deliver an annual Lent sermon at the church during the 1950s and 1960s. He spoke at the church just three weeks prior to his assassination in 1968.
An award dedicated to a former pastor, Dr. Henry Hitt Crane, was given this year to General Holiefield, vice-president of the UAW Chrysler Department. Bob King, the newly-elected president of the UAW was the event chair and also addressed the audience.
Other awardees included Father Norman Thomas of Sacred Heart Church and Marianne Williamson, spiritual activist, author and lecturer who now lives in California. The event was addressed by the Congressman-elect Hansen Clarke and was moderated by Huel Perkins, news anchor at Channel 2.
The dinner was attended by a host of activist organizations in the Detroit area including the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, the People Before Banks Coalition, the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, the Detroit-Metro AFL-CIO, Unite Here, among many others.
Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. were also in attendance.
Rev. Edwin Rowe, the current pastor at Central, addressed the crowd and implored all religious leaders to work toward correcting injustice and exploitation. He specifically cited DTE Energy for their continued policy of shutting off heat and electricity to households during winter months.
Central will again be the host for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March & Rally on January 17. This year’s featured speaker will be Willie Mukasa Ricks, a former field secretary for SNCC.
The MLK Day event on January 17 will also pay special tribute to the late Rev. Lucius Walker, the leader of the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organizations (IFCO) and Pastors for Peace. The tribute will feature Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson who worked with Walker during his life.
This event will start at Noon on the MLK federal holiday with a mass rally and there will later be a march for jobs, justice and peace through downtown Detroit beginning at 1:30 p.m.
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