Shirley Sherrod at NABJ Convention 2010

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod said that President Obama and many others could benefit from a lesson in black history at the NABJ conference in San Diego Thursday.  Sherrod, who was a civil rights pioneer in Georgia and advocate for black farmers, was at the center of a controversy started by a conservative blogger.  Blogger Andrew Breitbart purposely mischaracterized and edited a video speech Sherrod made at an NAACP dinner.  She was fired from her government job, criticized by the NAACP and received tons of hate mail because of this misleading video by the blogger.  However, after media organizations like CNN reported that the facts, the USDA, NAACP and others from the Obama administration apologized to Sherrod.  USDA has offered her a new job.