How to become successful off the backs of the poor

[Mornac]

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August 2, 2010

The Story of Annie Hawkins and New Communities, Inc.
The Other Side of Shirley Sherrod
By RON WILKINS

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.

The swirling controversy over the racist dismissal of Shirley Sherrod from her USDA post has obscured her profoundly oppositional behavior toward black agricultural workers in the 1970s. What most of Mrs. Sherrod’s supporters are not aware of is the elitist and anti-black-labor role that she and fellow managers of New Communities Inc. (NCI) played. These individuals under-paid, mistreated and fired black laborers–many of them less than 16 years of age–in the same fields of southwest Georgia where their ancestors suffered under chattel slavery.

When I first noticed the story of her firing and the association of Shirley Sherrod’s name with the rural black poor and concern for “black land-loss”, I wondered if the person being praised was the same Shirley Sherrod whom I knew. One piece posted on the July 23rd Alternet and captioned “Shirley Sherrod and the black Land Struggle” even claimed that she “devoted her entire life to economic justice”. The mistreatment of black workers at NCI under the Sherrods is a matter of record that contradicts this claim.

If confession is good for the soul, then Mrs. Sherrod took a first step toward her redemption by admitting the error of her ways in her earlier attitudes toward poor white farmers. Mrs. Sherrod says she began to see poverty as more central than race. So, should indigent black child farm laborers warrant less reflection by Mrs. Sherrod? What lessons does she have to share from her tenure as management when she had power over her own people working under deplorable conditions at the same New Communities, Inc.(NCI) identified in the current issue? Shirley Sherrod could have included this chapter of her history in the same confession speech. Justice and integrity require at least as much accountability from Mrs. Sherrod to the poor black farm workers of NCI as to the white farmers she came to befriend. This lack of full disclosure of the whole truth is a “sin of omission” that trivializes the suffering of poor black farm workers and exacerbates the offenses of NCI.

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.

The unfortunate story of Mrs. Annie Hawkins and her family in particular is instructive. Persuaded by NCI that their lot would be improved, the Hawkins family stole away from the Georgia plantation that they had called home. After suffering abuse meted out to them and others at NCI, Mrs. Hawkins sadly stated that, “We stole away from one plantation, but just ended up on another.” For her courageous role in demonstrations against the Sherrods and NCI management, Annie Hawkins and her family were fired and kicked out of the house that they were promised. My last encounter with an ailing Mrs. Hawkins took place several years ago in a nursing home where she resided.

Worker protest at New Communities eventually garnered some assistance from the United Farm Workers Union in nearby Florida in the person of one of its most formidable organizers, black State Director, the late Mack Lyons. The September 28, 1974 UFW newspaper El Malcriado, page two, reported on the worker’s strike (“Children Farm Workers Strike Black Co-op” www.farmworkermovement.org/ufwarchives) and the UFW stepped in to protect black farm workers from exploitation by NCI. Fearful of both UFW efforts to unionize NCI’s labor force and scrutiny by the Georgia State Wage and Hour Division, the Sherrods and NCI management hastily issued checks in varying amounts to strikers to makeup ostensibly for minimum wage differentials. It is bitter irony that the Sherrods have succeeded in being awarded $300,000 following a discrimination lawsuit, while Mrs. Hawkins and other impoverished NCI black laborers whom NCI exploited were never adequately compensated for their “pain and suffering”.

While it is true that loan discrimination and relentless creditors can be cited for the eventual demise of New Communities Inc. in 1985, NCI’s unfair labor practices and poor leadership, were equally, if not more, to blame. Ask Shirley Sherrod about this part of her history. I know this story well, for I was one of those workers at NCI.

Ron Wilkins is a former organizer in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1974, under an assumed name, he hired-on at New Communities Inc. The Emergency Land Fund, an Atlanta-based black land retention organization, which shared oversight responsibility for NCI’s progress, wanted to know the basis for NCI’s continued poor performance. The author’s secondary purpose was to develop agricultural skills. For his role in organizing NCI’s workers, management eventually fired him from his $40 per week position, evicted him from the rent-free shack on NCI property and orchestrated his arrest, on bogus charges, by FBI agents and Lee County, Georgia Sheriff’s deputies in the midst of an NCI labor protest. The charges were later dropped. Presently he is an Africana Studies professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He can be reached at: rwilkins@csudh.edu

http://www.counterpunch.org/wilkins08022010.html

[Mornac]

Maybe she was just suffering from a case of negrophobia.


Ne·gro·pho·bi·a (ngr-fb-)
n.
1. Fear of or contempt for Black people and their culture.
2. Behavior based on such an attitude or feeling.

What an embarrasment to have had someone like this on the public payroll for all of these years.

[johnhp]

i guess you do not really know much.  Ms. Sharrod was on the public payroll for a little less than a year, not "all these years."

Secondly, as much as i appreciate the left critique of Sherrod and the administration, i would like to see more actual documentation from Ron Wilkins.  For instance, what was the average farm worker pay in Georgia at the time?  He mentions a .67 cent average at the farm, but that is not accurate.  His source cites a range of pay from .67 to 1.63 per hour.  It mentions no average.

Does he anywhere document the agreement of Sherrod with all policies made by the administrative team or not?  How many people were on the administrative team?  Were the actual social condition effecting African American organizations, opposition by local white farmers and the state, not also contributing factors in this situation to the degree that these last hampered business?  He mentions these as factors that led to the demise of the operation, but does not take them into consideration as part of the issues related to remuneration.

Wilkins also does not mention the differential pay between management and labor.  There no doubt was a differential.  Was it similar to or different from the operation of other farms?

There are serious questions that put this story into its proper context.  That, of course, is not your interest.

[Velleity]

It's funny you should pick up only on this particular theme instead of, say: 1) "How to become successful by destroying the Gulf of Mexico"; 2) "How to become successful playing to the fears of white people"; 3) "How to become successful telling low information 'conservatives" everything they want to hear"; 4) "How to become successful selling phony investments"; 5) "How to become successful shaking down Indian reservations for campaign contributions"; or 6) "How to become successful in airport men's rooms."

How odd that you would choose the route you did when so many other routes are available.

[johnhp]

It's funny you should pick up only on this particular theme instead of, say: 1) "How to become successful by destroying the Gulf of Mexico"; 2) "How to become successful playing to the fears of white people"; 3) "How to become successful telling low information 'conservatives" everything they want to hear"; 4) "How to become successful selling phony investments"; 5) "How to become successful shaking down Indian reservations for campaign contributions"; or 6) "How to become successful in airport men's rooms."

How odd that you would choose the route you did when so many other routes are available.

Actually, his subject heading is misleading.  There is evidence that Mr. Wilkins's article is not as thorough as it could be.  Mornac jumps to huge conclusions here.

[Velleity]

Actually, his subject heading is misleading.  There is evidence that Mr. Wilkins's article is not as thorough as it could be.  Mornac jumps to huge conclusions here.

Yep, which is why his selection of titles is all that more interesting. I only skimmed the article as it appears to be utter nonsense and hysterics, a la a Dick Morris.

But the title reveals a whole lot about Mornac, especially because he improvised it.

[Mornac]

It's funny you should pick up only on this particular theme instead of, say: 1) "How to become successful by destroying the Gulf of Mexico"; 2) "How to become successful playing to the fears of white people"; 3) "How to become successful telling low information 'conservatives" everything they want to hear"; 4) "How to become successful selling phony investments"; 5) "How to become successful shaking down Indian reservations for campaign contributions"; or 6) "How to become successful in airport men's rooms."

--There is no “instead of” where I come from. I post on as many different topics as I wish. I’ve yet to be told by anyone that there is a finite amount of things that I can comment on so that I should choose carefully. Has there been a policy change around here?

How odd that you would choose the route you did when so many other routes are available.

--See above.

[Mornac]

Yep, which is why his selection of titles is all that more interesting. I only skimmed the article as it appears to be utter nonsense and hysterics, a la a Dick Morris.

--I don’t know Prof. Wilkins personally but he has credentials that make it hard to imagine that he would make something like this up. Are you sure you’re not feeling a little negrophobic yourself?

But the title reveals a whole lot about Mornac, especially because he improvised it.

--Improvised? I’ll have you know that I composed that title from scratch all on my own.

[johnhp]

Yep, which is why his selection of titles is all that more interesting. I only skimmed the article as it appears to be utter nonsense and hysterics, a la a Dick Morris.

But the title reveals a whole lot about Mornac, especially because he improvised it.

The article is relatively good at describing conditions, with the exception of at least one misstatement of fact.  The problem with the article is the knee jerk attribution of fault with Ms. Sherrod, a failure to fully appreciate the social conditions in which the farm existed, etc.

And let's be clear, the only negrophobe here is Mornac.  The reason he posted this article has nothing to do with his concern for the plight of poor Blacks, he just wants to tear down a person who actually helped Blacks on average and a political philosophy that helps Blacks.

[IM2]

The Sherrods were part of a class action suit filed against the USDA. It was a 1.25 billion dollar lawsuit and the Sherrods were awarded 13 million dollars. This was not even 1 percent of the overall amount awarded. So then perhaps Mr Wilkins story should be considered more right wing trash.

[johnhp]

IM

Actually it is a left wing critique of the issue.  However, Mr. Wilkins, who refers to himself as a professor for some reason, has some of the facts wrong.

[IM2]

Mornac is using this, so it becomes right wing trash. Or should I simply say just trash.

[johnhp]

Mornac is using this, so it becomes right wing trash. Or should I simply say just trash.

What is amusing is Mornac assuming that anyone would mistake the fascist intent of his post with Wilkins' actual concern.  Mornac couldn't give a damn about the oppression of farm workers, for instance.  He has never made one post in which he shows the slightest concern for real human beings who are actually socially marginalized in our nation.  It is only when he can use the stories of the socially marginalized in the past as a bludgeon to defend the racism of the present that this becomes his concern.