Parents: NAACP leader lied about being black
Group backs her after comments touch off furor.
— Rachel Dolezal leads the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, teaches African studies to college students and sits on a police oversight commission.
But the 37-year-old artist and activist with dark curly hair and light-brown skin now finds herself at the center of a furor over racial identity after family members said she has falsely portrayed herself as black for years when she is actually white.
As proof, they produced pictures of her as a blonde, blue-eyed child.
The city is also investigating whether she lied about her ethnicity when she applied to be on the police board.
And police on Friday said they were suspending investigations into racial harassment complaints filed by Dolezal, including one from earlier this year in which she said she received hate mail at her office.
The NAACP issued a statement Friday supporting Dolezal, who has been a longtime figure in Spokane’s human-rights community. “One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership,” the group said. “In every corner of this country, the NAACP remains committed to securing political, educational and economic justice for all people.”
On Thursday, Dolezal avoided answering questions directly about her race and ethnicity.
“That question is not as easy as it seems,” she said. “There’s a lot of complexities and I don’t know that everyone would understand that.”
“We’re all from the African continent,” she said.
Ruthanne Dolezal of Troy, Montana, said this week that she has had no contact with her daughter in years. She said Rachel began to “disguise herself ” after the family adopted four African-American children more than a decade ago.
Her daughter dismissed the controversy, saying it arose from litigation involving other relatives who have divided the family.
Ruthanne Dolezal said the family’s ancestry is Czech, Swedish and German, with a trace of Native American heritage. She produced a copy of her daughter’s Montana birth certificate listing herself and Larry Dolezal as Rachel’s parents.