Shirley and Charles Sherrod founded the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education in 1961 to educate, engage and empower through advocacy and community organizing. SWGAP has successfully addressed school segregation, welfare rights, voter rights and education, housing, land loss, economic development and unfair policies affecting school children and families.
After decades of helping minority farmers keep their land, Sherrod became the first African American to hold the position of Georgia Director of Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Sherrods were instrumental in Pigford v. Glickman, a class-action lawsuit challenging USDA discrimination and resulting in the largest civil rights settlement in history. Sherrod has a master’s degree in community development. She met her husband while working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
In this video, Sherrod talks about the reasons she finds herself fighting the same battles she helped win in the 1960s.