WATCH ABOVE: Family members of an NAACP leader say the Washington state civil rights activist has been falsely portraying herself as black for years. Aarti Pole reports.
The president of a Spokane, Washington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is being accused of lying about being black – by her parents.
Rachel Dolezal’s parents told The Spokesman-Review that their 37-year-old daughter began to “disguise herself” in 2006 after their family adopted four African-American children.
“It’s very sad that Rachel has not just been herself,” Ruthanne Dolezal, Rachel’s mother, told the newspaper. “Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody.”
WATCH: Rachel Dolezal is at the center of a controversy over whether or not she’s actually black. Her white parents deny her claims but in a new interview, Dolezal shares her side of the story. Adriana Diaz reports.
Ruthanne, who lives in Montana with her husband Larry, backed up their claims to the Coeur d’Alene Press with copies of Rachel’s birth certificate and photos and questioned claims the NAACP chapter president had made about her upbringing and ethnicity.
Her parents said Rachel’s repeated claims that she was born in a teepee were “totally false,” that she never lived in South Africa, and she never used “bows and arrows to hunt for her own food” according to the newspaper.
Dolezal was elected president of the local NAACP chapter in 2014, serves as the commissioner for the Office of the Police Ombudsman, and teaches African studies at a local college.
The NAACP released a statement on regarding Dolezal late Friday morning in which they said “racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership.”
“NAACP Spokane Washington Branch President Rachel Dolezal is enduring a legal issue with her family, and we respect her privacy in this matter. One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership. The NAACP Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Conference stands behind Ms. Dolezal’s advocacy record.”
The city is investigating whether any policies related to volunteer boards have been violated. According to The Spokesman-Review, Dolezal identified herself as having several ethnic origins, including white, black, and American Indian on her application for the police ombudsman position.
WATCH: Spokane NAACP President Rachel Dolezal explained to a KREM reporter why she identifies as black instead of embracing her German-Czech heritage.
Rachel Dolezal told The Spokesman-Review following the allegations that she was actually white that she feels “like I owe my executive committee a conversation.”
She added that “we’re all from the African continent.”
But she was unable to provide a clear answer to a local television reporter for KXLY when asked whether she was indeed African-American. The question came after being shown the photo below of an African-American man she claimed was her father.
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“Is that your dad?”
“Yeah, that’s…that’s my dad.”
“This man right here’s your father? Right there?”
“You have a question about that?”
“Yes ma’am, I was wondering if your dad really is an African-American man.”
“That’s a very — I mean, I don’t know what you’re implying.”
WATCH: A reporter from KXLY recently confronted Spokane NAACP President Rachel Dolezal about the possibility that she’s been lying about her black heritage.
“Are you African-American?”
“I don’t understand the question of — I did tell you that, yes, that’s my dad. And he was unable to come in January.”
“Are your parents…are they white?”
Dolezal then walked away.
And the Spokane NAACP Facebook page published a photo in January of Dolezal with a man it claimed was her father.
Her Instagram account, “Afrocentricfemme” has been made private and her Facebook page also seems to have been taken down.
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