Fort Valley State University

April 29, 2010 - Shirley Sherrod, the United States Department of Agricultural director for Georgia, is a living witness of the state’s contentious Civil Rights Movement. A transfixed audience listened closely as the activist described the struggle for land, freedom, justice and equality during an unveiling ceremony of the Middle Georgia Oral History project held at Fort Valley State University in the Hunt Memorial Library’s Alumni Hall of Fame room on April 16.

“History has to be what actually happened and not what historians believed happened,” says FVSU’s assistant professor of history, Dr. Christine Lutz, the project advisor. Lutz donated Civil Rights photographs and postcards to FVSU for its archives. Dr. Fred van Hartsveldt and the library’s director, Annie Payton, began the oral history project entitled ‘How We Work’. Laborers from all walks of life will be interviewed, then the stories will be archived at the library. “We want to collect the stories of Middle Georgians and put them in one primary place. The project gives the disenfranchised a chance to speak truth to power.”

Sherrod’s story is the first in the collection. The self-described farm girl grew up with five sisters. In 1963, a white farmer murdered her father, but was never prosecuted. The shocking incident inspired Sherrod, a young college student at FVSU, to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. There, she met and married its leader Charles Sherrod.

The couple travelled overseas, studying at a kibbutz. In 1968, armed with knowledge, the SNCC members returned to Georgia to develop a community. They obtained a 6,000 acre land trust in Lee County, Ga for New Communities, Incorporated established with other black families. They received funding for its development, but Governor Maddox called a halt to further expansion. Despite the roadblock, the group pushed forward and built train tracks, sugar cane mills, grew corn, peanuts, soy beans and also processed meats.

The organization thrived until 1970s when a drought damaged crops causing a major loss of revenues. The group applied for an emergency loan but was denied. “The National Conservancy could have paid the debt on the land, but every time we wanted to do something, the doors closed because we were black.” In 1985, the bank foreclosed on the property.

“They wanted to wipe all traces of us off the land,” Sherrod said. “They dug holes, took a bulldozer and destroyed all of our buildings.”

Nearly a decade later, the Sherrods filed a lawsuit. After legal wrangling and several incompetent lawyers, the case was brought before a judge who awarded the couple and New Communities, Inc. almost $13,000,000 ($8 million for the land, $4 million in lost income and $1 million in personal damages) in 2009. A few months later, President Obama named Sherrod Georgia’s USDA director. “God has a sense of humor. Now I oversee some of my former enemies. But I hold no grudge.”

The group who started the oral history project will apply for a National Endowment of the Humanities grant to purchase new servers and electronic equipment.

“Once the process of describing the collection is complete, we will work on digitizing it,” said Payton. “ This goes way beyond scanning. We will be purchasing servers and other computers to support the oral history program.”
—FVSU—
Contact:
Christina D. Milton, editorial assistant
Marketing and Communications
(478) 822-7589, miltonc@fvsu.edu