Dr. Sherrod, a civil rights activist for over a half-century, is also a former USDA Rural Development director for the state of Georgia. In 1969, she and her husband, Charles Sherrod, help found New Communities. In 1999, they joined the class action plaintiffs in the lawsuit Pigford v. Glickman. In 2010, Sherrod was wrongfully dismissed from USDA. In 2012, with Catherine Whitney, she authored a biography of her life, The Courage to Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear.