Shirley Sherrod Declines Job at USDA After Race Flap

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2010— -- Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official whose ouster from her job last month sparked a heated debate on race and politics, today declined an offer to return to work in the agency's civil rights division.

Sherrod told reporters she could not accept the job "at this point, with all that has happened."

"I know [Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack] has apologized and I accept that," she said. "A new process is in place and I hope that it works. But I think I can be helpful to him and the department if I just take a little break and look at how I can be more helpful in the future."

Vilsack, who appeared with Sherrod at a news conference to announce her decision, has said he accepts full responsibility for the mistaken firing after a conservative blogger released an excerpt of a speech Sherrod gave several months ago that seemed to cast her as racist.

"I disappointed the president," he said. "I disappointed the department, I disappointed Shirley and I disappointed myself."

Vilsack met privately with Sherrod for about 90 minutes to encourage her to accept the job, to no avail.

But Sherrod did leave the door open for returning to support the agency's civil rights work in the years ahead. "I look forward to some type of relationship with the department in the future," Sherrod said. "We do need to work on the issues of discrimination and race in this country."

The Agriculture Department official, based in Georgia, first grabbed national headlines last month after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a video clip of her from a March NAACP event talking about her dilemma in helping a white farmer 24 years ago.

She was quickly fired from the agency after the clip surfaced, a move the White House later said was based on an "incomplete set of facts."