WASHINGTON — Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official ousted during a racial firestorm last month, declined today to accept an offer to return full-time to the agency.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that Sherrod did agree to work with the agency in a consulting capacity in the future to help it improve its civil rights performance. She told reporters she did not think she could say yes to a job “at this point, with all that has happened.” There had been indications that Vilsack, who apologized to Sherrod for pushing her out, had offered her a position in the Office of Advocacy and Outreach, which works in the civil rights area.

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Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack puts his arm around former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod as they conclude a news conference in Washington today. AP

“It is a new position,” she said. “I look at what happened now. I know he has apologized and I accept that. A new process is in place and I hope that it works. … I think I can be helpful to him and the department if I just take a little break and look at how I can be more helpful in the future,” Sherrod said.

She did say she was “tempted” to take the position.

Vilsack said that “Shirley has unique opportunities here.”

Vilsack said he had tried in vain to get Sherrod to return to the department.

The veteran department employee was forced out earlier this year when an excerpt of a speech she gave several years ago was posted by a conservative blogger on the Internet, remarks that seemed to show Sherrod giving short-shrift attention as a local agriculture to a poor white farmer’s plea for financial assistance.

The incident proved embarrassing for the Obama administration.

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