Who is Rachel Dolezal?

13 Jun, 2015

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.”

Dolezal did not return several telephone messages left Friday by The Associated Press.

On Thursday, she avoided answering questions directly about her race and ethnicity in an interview with The Spokesman-Review Newspaper.

“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 added.

Ruthanne Dolezal of Troy, Montana, told reporters this week that she has had no contact with her daughter in years. She said Rachel began to “disguise herself” after her parents adopted four African-American children more than a decade ago. Rachel later married and divorced a black man and graduated from historically black Howard University.

Ruthanne Dolezal also showed reporters pictures of her daughter as a child, with blonde hair, blue eyes and straight hair.

Meanwhile, an inquiry was opened at Spokane City Hall, where Dolezal identified herself in her application to the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission as having several ethnic origins, including white, black and American Indian.

“We are gathering facts to determine if any city policies related to volunteer boards and commissions have been violated,” Mayor David Condon and Council President Ben Stuckart said this week in a joint statement.

 AP

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