resora-experience

TODAY: Reverend Charles Sherrod, civil rights pioneer, dies at 85

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 21:04:48 GMT

Reverend Charles Sherrod was a civil rights activist based in Albany, New York. His strategy of building community ties with students, churches and local organizations helped form a model for the national fight against desegregation. Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist remembers a life well lived.

Albany Herald: Civil Rights icon Charles Sherrod dies at age 85

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 21:02:58 GMT

The Rev. Charles Melvin Sherrod, whose grassroots organizing of unregistered black voters sent shock waves through the segregated South and kickstarted the Albany Movement, has died. He was 85.

Sherrod, whose death was confirmed by his family, died of natural causes at his home in Albany on Tuesday at 3:45 p.m.

“He was a great husband, a great father and great servant to his community,” Sherrod’s wife of 56 years, Shirley Miller Sherrod, said. “His life serves as a shining example of service to one’s fellow man.”

Sherrod played a transformative role in the civil rights movement during the 1960s, cofounding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and inspiring blacks in southwest Georgia to straighten their backs and stand up for their rights.

AJC: Civil Rights icon Charles Sherrod dies at age 85

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 21:00:32 GMT

The Rev. Charles Melvin Sherrod, whose grassroots organizing of unregistered black voters sent shock waves through the segregated South and kickstarted the Albany Movement, has died. He was 85.

Sherrod, whose death was confirmed by his family, died of natural causes at his home in Albany on Tuesday at 3:45 p.m.

Washington Post: Charles Sherrod, civil rights activist with SNCC, dies at 85

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 20:58:35 GMT

The Rev. Charles Sherrod, a front-line warrior for civil rights who became the first field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, braving beatings and death threats in the early 1960s while trying to desegregate a Southern stronghold of white supremacy, died Oct. 11 at his home in Albany, Ga., where he had worked for more than six decades. He was 85.

His death was announced in a statement by his family, which did not cite a cause.

The New York Times - Charles Sherrod, Civil Rights Pioneer in Rural Georgia, Dies at 85 - nytimes.com

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 20:57:06 GMT

The Rev. Charles Sherrod, a quietly stalwart civil rights leader who helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960, became its first field secretary when he took an assignment ...

Rev. Charles Melvin Sherrod, Civil Rights Leader Who Brought The Fight for Civil Rights To Segregated Southwest Georgia, Kickstarted the Albany Movement, Dies at 85

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 23:17:42 GMT

Albany, Georgia - Rev. Charles Melvin Sherrod, whose grassroots organizing of unregistered Black voters sent shock waves through the segregated South, and kickstarted the Albany Movement, has died. He was 85.

Sherrod, whose death was confirmed by his family, died of natural causes at his home in Albany on Tuesday at 3:45 p.m.

"He was a great husband, a great father, and great servant to his community," said his wife of 56 years, Shirley Miller Sherrod. "His life serves as a shining example of service to one's fellow man."

Sherrod played a transformative role in Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s, cofounding SNCC, and inspiring Blacks in Southwest Georgia to straighten their backs and stand up for their rights.

Born January 2, 1937, in rural Surry, Virginia, Sherrod moved with his grandmother and siblings to nearby Petersburg where he became president of his high school student body. He earned both his undergraduate and divinity degree at Virginia Union University in Richmond before engaging in sit ins at segregated churches and department store lunch counters.

In April 1960, he traveled to Shaw University in Raleigh where he cofounded with others the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The following February, the organization dispatched he and three others SNCC workers to Rock Hill, South Carolina where he chose jail over bail and spent 30 days on the chain gang. It was a strategy he would employ again and again throughout his civil rights career.

In October 1961, Sherrod, headed to Albany as SNCC's first field secretary to help register Blacks to vote. His mastery at organizing mass meetings and empowering Black youth to stand up for their rights, mobilized parents and the status-quo to get off the sidelines. The result was The Albany Movement that garnered national and international attention and attracted scores of demonstrators, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

His civil rights work was not restricted to Albany. He helped bus demonstrators from Southwest Georgia to the 1963 March on Washington and ensured strong attendance in support of the Mississippi Freedom Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

He was the target of multiple acts of violence throughout his career, including death threats, the firebombing on his home with his wife inside and countless beatings at the hands of law enforcement. One particular attack in Newton, Georgia prevented him from a near fatal attack prevented only after a demonstrator wrapped her body around his.

Meanwhile back in Southwest Georgia, Sherrod remained fully invested, spearheading voter registration efforts in surrounding counties, including the racially hostile Baker County. In the summer of 1965, he met the love of his life, Shirley Miller, the daughter of a Black farmer gunned down in his own pasture, by a white farmer whom an all-white jury refused to indict for his murder.

After completing his master’s in divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1966, Sherrod broke ranks with SNCC over its ouster of whites. He cofounded alternatively the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, continuing with his wife their voter registration work.

In July 1968, Sherrod traveled to Israel with seven others to explore the idea of creating a community-held farm to serve as a safe haven for Black farmers thrown off their land during the Movement. Ultimately serving as the leader, Sherrod took the reins, secured the needed capital and acquired the 5735-acre New Communities, Inc. in neighboring Lee County.

From 1969 to 1985, he served at the helm of what became the nation's largest Black-owned farm and first community land trust. That is, until drought and discriminatory loan practices brought about its loss.

Still, Sherrod stayed the course. He served as one of Albany's first Black city commissioners from 1976 to 1990, ran unsuccessfully for a state senator in 1996, taught on faculty at Albany State University and served as chaplain at the Georgia State Prison in Homerville.

However, he never allowed himself to forget about the loss of New Communities. In 1999, acting on behalf of the nonprofit, he and Shirley joined other Black farmers in a class action lawsuit, suing the United States Department of Agriculture with discriminatory loan practices. What they recovered in an out-of-court settlement cleared the way for the nonprofit to acquire the 1638-acre Cypress Pond plantation near Albany. This former antebellum plantation where the enslaved toiled now managed by descendants of the enslaved serve as a legacy to him.

In addition to his wife Shirley, Sherrod is survived by two adult children, Russia Sherrod of Albany, Georgia and Kenyatta (Mikhiela) Sherrod of Marietta, Georgia, and five granddaughters, Kourtney (Charles, III) Sherrod Corbin of Auburn, Al, Mia Sherrod of Dallas, Tx, Kiera Sherrod of Marietta, Simone Sherrod of Marietta and Khloe Sherrod of Albany, Ga.

Predeceased by his maternal grandmother Ida Walker, parents Martha Mae Gipson and Raymond Sherrod and brother Altha Gipson, Charles is survived by siblings Ricardo "Dump" (Doris) Sherrod of Fort Washington, MD, Roland Leon (Alet) Sherrod of Richmond, Sheilda Sherrod Fobbs of Richmond and Michael Gipson of Richmond.

He is also survived by his mother-in-law, Grace Miller of Baker County, Ga, and in-laws Nannie (Paul) Jones of Cincinnati, Oh, Sandra (Melvin) Jones of Albany, Rubertha Hall of Salt Lake City, Utah, Debra Walker of Atlanta, and Hosea (Haley) Miller, Jr. of Leesburg.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that tax-deductible donations in Rev. Sherrod’s name be made to The Charles Sherrod Community Development Corporation. Gifts can be mailed to the following address: C/O The Sherrod Institute, 1216 Dawson Rd # 108, Albany, GA 31707. You can also donations in Rev. Sherrod’s name can be made payable to ‘The Charles Sherrod Community Development Corporation’ at this hyperlink: www.donorbox.org/charles-sherrod-cdc , or can be mailed – he nonprofit federal tax ID number is 47-3985534.

Please send all tributes to: info@sherrodinstitute.org

Planned Services

Saturday, October 15, 2022, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Celebration of Life & Funeral

Mount Zion Baptist Church

901 S Westover Blvd

Albany, GA 31721

Interment (to follow)

New Communities at Cypress Pond

801 Old Pretoria Road,

Albany, GA 31721

Repast (to follow)

New Communities at Cypress Pond

801 Old Pretoria Road,

Albany, GA 31721

NPR: 5 Decades Later, New Communities Land Trust Still Helps Black Farmers

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 04:13:37 GMT

Shirley Sherrod is co-founder of the New Communities Land Trust founded 50 years ago as a safe haven for African-American farmers thrown off their land during the civil rights movement.

Intelligencer: Black USDA Official Was So Racist to White Farmer That They Became ‘Friends for Life’

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 04:13:35 GMT

Black families in the South are doing important work to continue the legacy of Black farming communities.

YES: How a Black Farming Community Found Justice

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 04:13:34 GMT

Black families in the South are doing important work to continue the legacy of Black farming communities.

NPR: Shirley Sherrod Stands Up To The Politics Of Fear

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 04:13:33 GMT

Shirley Sherrod was forced out of the Department of Agriculture because of a misleading video. An edited clip appeared to show her saying she didn't want to help white farmers save their land. But the entire speech made it clear that Sherrod was actually saying racism is wrong. She talks with host Michel Martin about her book The Courage To Hope.

NEWSONE: Shirley Sherrod Is Why Tom Vilsack As Agriculture Secretary Is A ‘Slap In The Face To Black Americans’

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 04:13:33 GMT

Obama's UDSA secretary fired Shirley Sherrod under false pretenses that exposed racism at the federal agency.

Shirley Sherrod with Warnock & Bishop

accounting@gracelifemarketing.com (Corey Holman) — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 07:19:08 GMT

Before you go to court, make sure you know what you can (and cannot) say.

Make a list
Lists are great ways to stay on track. Write down some big things you want to accomplish and some smaller things, too.

Check the list regularly
Don’t forget to check in and see how you’re doing. Just because you don’t achieve the big goals right away doesn’t mean you’re not making progress.

Reward yourself
When you succeed in achieving a goal, be it a big one or a small one, make sure to pat yourself on the back.

Think positively
Positive thinking is a major factor in success. So instead of mulling over things that didn’t go quite right, remind yourself of things that did.