they beat us down into the ground. my aunt joe, a little petite woman, she put her body over his and was hollering at him at them to stop beating charles sherrod because they were going to kill him. reporter: but that didn t stop sherrod from driving backwoods roads to meet every black family in the area. i was canvassing and bank in baker county knocking on this door and three or four pretty girls came to the door. they started talking about this girl, their sister, that was prettier than either one of them. i said, prettier than either one of them? lord, i want to see this girl. so they said, they got a picture. i said, i want to see the picture of your sister. and i pointed it out, and i said, i m going to marry that girl. reporter: he did marry shirley.
baker county, georgia, shirley sherrod s experiences as a young girl would shape her professional life. with black-owned farms heading toward extinction, sherrod wanted to help. that s when she made up her mind that she was going to stay here and try to help make a difference in this community. she was always determined and a strong person. reporter: in 1967, shirley and charles set out to change the land, literally. 6,000 acres to be exact. they helped created a land trust for black farmers with a long-range plan to build wealth. it was called new communities. one acre at a time it grew into one of the largest tracts of black-owned land in the country. the whole idea of the new communities was to go about the country, buying land, holding it in trust and turning it over to local community development
as a young girl, shirley sherrod she was shirley miller then dreamed of getting out of the deep south. we had these big plans for me. i was trying to look at going to school in the north. back then they said a woman would find a husband at college. i thought, okay, i m not going to risk even going to college in the south because i don t want no husband from the south. i want to go north. reporter: meanwhile, her father was on the verge of fulfilling one of his dreams. with five daughters, his wife was pregnant again. and he was sure this would be a boy. he had a room built. it was blue. he said, this is going to be for my boy. and he had planned he told me, he said, when we go pick the baby up out of the hospital, i m
you had to get up before daylight and get food and try to be in the field as the sun was coming up. walking down the streets near her hometown, sherrod remembers working in the cotton fields as a young child. you had a sack that you put on, and the sack went over this shoulder. you know, and the opening was here. so you are bending over picking cotton and putting it in the sack. and when it gets full, you got to take it over to a burlap sheet and pour it in there and you did that all the day long. reporter: shirley sherrod s family has lived in this area since the 1800s. all farmers, share croppers, who over the years bought more and more of the land they worked. she grew up in a small house with her father and her mother,
i was such a good girl, good student. i couldn t figure out why they were calling me to the office. but i went and they told me first that he had been shot. the murder that changed shirley sherrod s life forever. that s when we come back. key nud were found to be absorbed by the body. these nutrients help support energy and immunity. science gives you more reason to trust centrum.