A black federal worker has resigned from a Georgia agricultural job after a video clip showed her saying she had not helped a farmer as much as she could have because he was white.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement Tuesday he had accepted the resignation of Shirley Sherrod. Vilsack says the USDA has no tolerance for discrimination.
Sherrod told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution she was forced out of her job as the USDA’s rural development director for Georgia. She said the two-minute, 38-second video posted online Monday misconstrued her message.
Sherrod’s taped remarks were from a local meeting of the civil rights group NAACP.
National NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous welcomed the resignation because the group opposes racism of all kinds.
