Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official featured in a videotaped NAACP speech in which she admits to having withheld the “full force” of government assistance from a farmer because he was white, has now resigned. And she blames the NAACP’s tiff with the tea party.
Asked about the NAACP’s actions during an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Sherrod said the only reason the video surfaced was in response to an NAACP resolution accusing the tea party of using “racist” tactics. “They got into a fight with the tea party, and all of this came out as a result of that,” Sherrod said.
The former Agriculture Department official also said she never heard from the NAACP to hear her side of the story prior to its statement on the video. “The NAACP has not tried to contact me one time, and that’s why this happened,” she said. “I would have appreciated having the NAACP at least contact me … to try to get the truth about what happened.”
“I have done more to advance the causes of civil rights in this area than some of them who are sitting in those positions now with the NAACP,” Sherrod continued. “They need to learn something about me. They need to know about my work. They need to know what I have contributed through the years.”
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