The Other Side of Shirley Sherrod

The "sainted" Shirley Sherrod was once the Simon Legree of her own 6000 acre plantation exploiting black farm workers, paying them a pittance and throwing them out of their homes if they complained.

Ron Wilkins was once a black farmworker on her plantation.

Imagine farm workers doing back breaking labor in the sweltering sun, sprayed with pesticides and paid less than minimum wage. Imagine the United Farm Workers called in to defend these laborers against such exploitation by management. Now imagine that the farm workers are black children and adults and that the managers are Shirley Sherrod, her husband Rev. Charles Sherrod, and a host of others. But it’s no illusion; this is fact.
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Shirley Sherrod was New Communities Inc. store manager during the 1970s. As such, Mrs. Sherrod was a key member of the NCI administrative team, which exploited and abused the workforce in the field. The 6,000 acre New Communities Inc. in Lee County promoted itself during the latter part of the 1960s and throughout the 70s as a land trust committed to improving the lives of the rural black poor. Underneath this facade, the young and old worked long hours with few breaks, the pay averaged sixty-seven cents an hour, fieldwork behind equipment spraying pesticides was commonplace and workers expressing dissatisfaction were fired without recourse.

Counterpunch is not a right wing blog; in fact, anything but.  So it's a surprise that at least one of its writers knows her personally and is willing to tell the truth.