‘Black’ African-American activist quits group over race issue

In this March 2, 2015 file photo, Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses for a photo in her Spokane, Washington, home. Dolezal is facing questions about whether she lied about her racial identity, with her family saying she is white but has portrayed herself as black, Friday, June 12, 2015. AP

SPOKANE, Washington, United States — The president of a chapter of a major U.S. group advocating for the rights of African Americans resigned Monday, just days after her parents said she is a white woman posing as black — a dizzyingly swift fall for an activist credited with injecting remarkable new energy into the civil rights organization.

The furor touched off fierce debate around the country over racial identity and divided the NAACP itself.

“In the eye of this current storm, I can see that a separation of family and organizational outcomes is in the best interest of the NAACP,” Rachel Dolezal, who was elected the Spokane chapter’s president last fall, wrote on the group’s Facebook page. “Please know I will never stop fighting for human rights.”

City officials, meanwhile, are investigating whether she lied about her ethnicity when she landed an appointment to Spokane’s police oversight board. On her application, she said her ethnic origins included white, black and American Indian.

Dolezal, a 37-year-old woman with a light brown complexion and dark curly hair, graduated from historically black Howard University, teaches African studies at a local university and was married to a black man. For years, she publicly described herself as black and complained repeatedly of being the victim of racial hatred in the heavily white region.

The uproar began last week after Dolezal’s parents told the news media that their daughter is white with a trace of Native American heritage. They produced photos of her as a girl with fair skin and straight blond hair.