firestorm. >> was there ever a discrimination claim filed against you? >> never. >> turning up the heat on the white house. >> on behalf of the administration, i offer our apologies. >> reporter: all this attention couldn't be farther from sherrod's humble roots. roots, though, that grounded her in the dangerous, even deadly world, of racial tension. newton, georgia, the deep south. 180 miles south of atlanta. a typical southern farming town. >> 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.