First up, the Bill Ayers connection. Teri O'Brien at the Illinois Review points out an interesting connection between a group Charles Sherrod belonged to and one Ayers belonged to, both in the 1960's.
...Ms. Sherrod’s husband is a former honcho in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee back in the 1960’s. You can read more about it in Bill Ayers book “Fugitive Days.” Yes, that Bill Ayers. He was involved in SNCC as well.Ayers belonged to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) before breaking away to form the much more violent Weather Underground. Both had the same goals, just different means.
Here is one of the relevant excerpts from "Fugitive Days":
The Community Union was part of a joint national strategy of SDS and SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), the beginnings of a shift away from attacking the legal barriers to integration largely in the South, now mostly in retreat, toward organizing around de facto segregation and economic injustice everywhere. Our focus was on building a powerful force of poor people in big northern cities—the grassy grass roots, we called them—who could not only change their own lives but could change the world.Be sure to go to the above link because there's more. Interestingly, it was all about forming an alliance to engage in Alinsky-styled Community Organizing.
Now how about that lawsuit. Tom Blumer at the Washington Examiner tells us all about some interesting circumstances just prior to the hiring of Shirley Sherrod on July 25th, 2009. As a member of the Rural Development Leadership Network, the announcement of Shirley's new job within the USDA was announced on the group's website:
RDLN Graduate and Board Vice Chair Shirley Sherrod was appointed Georgia Director for Rural Development by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on July 25. Only days earlier, she learned that New Communities, a group she founded with her husband and other families (see below) has won a thirteen million dollar settlement in the minority farmers law suit Pigford vs Vilsack.Not only that but the lawsuit itself seems to have had some reparations overtones to it.
The lawsuit won by the Sherrods was part of a class action, known as "the Pigford case". Their group, New Communities, was the beneficiary of what the RDLN website calls, "...the largest award so far in the minority farmers law suit (Pigford vs. Vilsack).
A Must read from Tom Blumer at Washington Examiner because it appears that more people are benefitting from the Pigford case than should be. It may be the gift that keeps on giving to those who know how to take advantage of it.
The much bigger issue involves what the leftwing media and the White House want to happen. They want to smear Breitbart as someone who took a video out of context to destroy Sherrod. The last thing in the world anyone in the conservative media should do is apologize for this episode. The video of Sherrod at the NAACP banquet is damaging to both her and the NAACP, even when viewed in its entirety.
The conservative media needs to follow the example set by Cambridge police officer James Crowley. He refused to apologize and Henry Louis Gates - as well as Obama - surrendered via the "beer summit". If Crowley would have apologized, Gates would have been victorious and Obama's contention that the "Police acted stupidly" would have been justified. The same should apply here. Conservatives need to remain on offense with Shirley Sherrod, Obama, and the Liberal Media. There appears to be much more to Shirley Sherrod than meets the eye.
h/t to Gateway Pundit
