USDA worker resigns over racism claim

7/21/2010 9:18:00 AM
By: WJBC Staff

ATLANTA (AP) — 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.

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