President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) said Secretary Tom Vilsack rushed to judgment when he fired Shirley Sherrod from the Department of Agriculture because of charges of racism.

Gosh, Scooter.  I wonder who Secretary Vilsack gets his orders from?  And who gave Political Appointee Shirley Sherrod that position in the USDA in 2009  in the first place, just a few days before she and her husband were awarded that $13,000,000 in their lawsuit against that very same government agency?

Obama told ABC consumer correspondent Elisabeth Leamy in an exclusive “Good Morning America” interview:

He jumped the gun, partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on YouTube or a blog and everybody scrambles.

The president, who personally apologized to Sherrod for 7 minutes in a phone call yesterday, said he “instructed” his administration to learn from the circumstances (another teachable moment) surrounding her ouster:

I’ve told my team and I told my agencies that we have to make sure that we’re focusing on doing the right thing instead of what looks to be politically necessary at that very moment.  We have to take our time and, and think these issues through. 

Like the Professor Gates situation last year, huh, Scooter?

If there’s a lesson to be drawn from this episode, it’s that rather than us jumping to conclusions and pointing fingers at each other, we should all look inward and try to examine what’s in our own hearts and, as a consequence, I think we will continue to make progress.

Thursday morning Sherrod told George Stephanopoulos that she didn’t know if the president was “fully behind” her and wanted to speak to Obama to ensure his support before deciding whether to accept the position Vilsack offered her at the USDA.

In detailing that now-legendary 7 minute phone call, the White House said:

The President reached Ms. Sherrod by telephone at about 12:35. They spoke for seven minutes.  The President expressed to Ms. Sherrod his regret about the events of the last several days. He emphasized that Secretary Vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday, and in his work to rid USDA of discrimination. 

The President told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so. 

Sherrod was appointed Georgia Director for Rural Development by Tom Volsack and the USDA on July 25th 2009.  She graduated in the first class of the Rural Development Leadership Network and serves as Vice Chair of their Board of Directors.  She earned her master’s degree from Antioch through RDLN.  She serves as Georgia lead for both the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI).

From wellesly.edu:

The Rural Development Leadership Network (RDLN), a national multicultural social change organization founded in 1983, supports community-based development in poor rural areas through hands-on projects, education and skills building, leadership development and networking. Through RDLN, emerging leaders from poor rural areas spearhead development projects and design related study through which they may earn a certificate or academic credential (bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph. D. degree.

From the website of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund:

We strive toward the development of self-supporting communities with programs that increase income and enhance other opportunities; and we strive to assist in land retention and development, especially for African Americans, but essentially for all family farmers.  

We do this with an active and democratic involvement in poor areas across the South, through education and outreach strategies which support low-income people in molding their communities to become more humane and livable. 

We assist in the development of cooperatives and credit unions as a collective strategy to create economic self-sufficiency.

On the front page of the website it proclaims: 

Fighting to save Black-owned land since 1967 with cooperatives.

From the website of the third group Shirley Sherrod is involved with:

The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice (SRBWI) grew out of a meeting convened by the Ford Foundation in New York, in late 2000. A small group of women met there to discuss with representatives of the Foundation, their experiences working in the rural South assisting low income, low skill and underemployed Black women who were trying to improve the quality of their and their families’ lives. In January, 2002 a slightly larger group of women held a follow-up meeting which led to the formation of the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice which works in a 77 county target area across the Black Belt regions of Alabama and Southwest Georgia, and the Delta in Mississippi.

Sherrod was the keynote speaker at the National Community Land Trust Network’s annual conference in 2009 in Athens, GA.  This is directly from their introductory biography of her:

Shirley’s work began in 1965 as an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Southwest Georgia Project. She helped to start the land trust, New Communities, Inc., that had 6,000 acres of land.

As I told you yesterday, the SNCC, in which her husband was involved, also, was led in 1966 by Stokely Carmichael.  Here are a few of his words of wisdom:

An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community – as SNCC does – must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan.

Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.

Capitalism is a stupid system, a backward system.

I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.

What a charmer.

Shirley and Charles Sherrod left the SNCC in 1967.  They did not leave immediately when Stokely Carmichael became chairman, even though they were aware of who he was, as he had been a member since joining while he was at Howard University from 1960 – 1964.

The latest wrinkle in our saga is that fact that Sherrod yesterday said that she might sue Andrew Breitbart.  Lotsa luck, Shirley.  The discovery process should be glorious.  Damages?  Nope.  You’ve been offered a better political appointment than you had.  You were offered some type of civil rights position in the USDA’s Office of Outreach.

In an interview Tuesday on CNN where she was lobbed softballs by Tony Harris (Chicago lost the Olympics???), she blamed Fox News and The Tea Party:

And this is the individual that is owed an apology?

Sources:  abcnews.com, wellesly.edu, federationsoutherncoop.com, srbwi.com, ruraldevelopment.com, cltnetwork.org, fordfoundation.org, brainyquote.com, youtube.com