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April 23, 2026
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Download official Extensions PDFReturn to issue contextHONORING SHIRLEY SHERROD'S 60TH ANNIVERSARY IN ADVOCACY FOR CIVIL
RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heart full of reverence and deep personal gratitude to honor Mrs. Shirley Miller Sherrod on the 60th anniversary of her tireless work for civil rights, economic justice, and the dignity of underserved farmers and rural communities. An event to celebrate her advocacy and remarkable life will be held on Friday, April 24, 2026, in Albany, Georgia.
testimony—written in endurance, courage, and relentless love. Born and raised in rural Georgia, she watched injustice with her own eyes as a young woman: at 17 she witnessed an all-white grand jury refuse to indict the man who took her father's life. From that wound came a vow— to spend her life defending the rights of her people. That vow was kept, not with fire or fanfare, but with steady, sacrificial labor that changed lives and moved a Nation.
Her commitment was strengthened by education and faith. Mrs. Sherrod studied at Fort Valley State University and Albany State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree; she holds a master's degree from Antioch University and is a 1993 Kellogg Fellow. Those classrooms sharpened her mind and equipped her to lead with both wisdom and humility.
Following the example of her parents, including her mother, Mrs. Grace Miller, Shirley set out to make a difference. Together with her late husband, the Rev. Charles Sherrod, she helped found the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education and co-found New Communities, Inc., the Nation's first community land trust. For decades they sought to secure land, bread, and dignity for Black families who had been denied both. They fed the hungry, taught the hopeful, defended the dispossessed, and refused to surrender a dream of justice even when drought, discrimination, and punitive government practices deprived them of the land they had nurtured.
USDA, she carried with her a lifetime of moral authority. When she was wrongfully forced from that office amid deceit and malicious editing, she bore the blow with quiet strength that only deepened my admiration. She returned to the trenches she had always known—the fields, the co- ops, the kitchen tables of small farmers—refusing bitterness and choosing again to build.
too often crowded out: Black farmers fighting to hold their land; children denied equal education; families seeking access to markets and capital. She has organized, taught, advocated, and led institutions— The Sherrod Institute, New Communities at Cypress Pond (Resora), The Southwest Georgia Project—that remain beacons of hope and practical help for a new generation.
the struggle—they were friends and moral companions. They both stood with me in places of decision and pressure; they supported me and, with humility, held me accountable when justice demanded it. Shirley's friendship has been a sustaining gift—her counsel frank, her faith unshakable, her love a steadying hand through seasons of trial.
There are moments in life that narrow everything to one clear truth. For Shirley, those moments have been countless acts of service: cajoling a reluctant lender to hear a farmer's story, sitting late with a grieving family, coaxing young leaders to raise their eyes to both truth and possibility. Her life makes real the Scripture that comforts and convicts us: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8). She has spoken—and acted—without ceasing.
Mary McLeod Bethune once urged us to “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.” Shirley Sherrod has lived that charge—investing in people, cultivating promise, and revealing the brilliance in communities too often overlooked.
Mr. Speaker, we gather not merely to laud achievements, though they are many, but to give thanks for a life poured out in pursuit of justice and mercy. We honor Shirley Sherrod for sixty years of faith made visible, for the countless lives she has steadied and lifted, and for the example she sets for all who would work for a fairer America.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join my wife, Vivian and me in celebrating Mrs. Shirley Miller Sherrod—a reformer, a teacher, a friend, and a true steward of hope— and to pledge anew our support for the work she leads so faithfully. May God bless her, keep her, and multiply the harvest of her labors for generations to come.