Rachel Dolezal, Washington NAACP leader, has 'disguised herself' as black, her parents say

The credibility of Rachel Dolezal, a prominent civil rights activist in Washington state, has crumbled since her mother has come forward to say that her daughter is not black.

Ruthanne Dolezal told The Spokane Spokesman-Review Thursday that her daughter started to “disguise herself” as black in 2006 and 2007 after her parents adopted four African-American children.

“It’s very sad that Rachel has not just been herself,” Ruthanne said. “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.”

Her father, Lawrence Dolezal, also told the Washington Post, “...Unfortunately, she is not ethnically by birth African American. She is our daughter by birth. And that’s the way it is.”

The Spokesman-Review later confronted Dolezal, 37, about the allegations from her own parents, but danced around the question.

“That question is not as easy as it seems. There’s a lot of complexities … and I don’t know that everyone would understand that,” she said, later adding, “We’re all from the African continent.”

Questions about Dolezal’s race were raised earlier this week when KXLY showed her a picture of a black man was posted to the Spokane NAACP’s Facebook page with the man identified as her father. KXLY asked her if that was really her father.

“That’s a very … I mean, I don’t know what you’re implying,” she replied.

“Are you African American?” the reporter asked.

“I don’t understand the question,” she said, as she walked off camera.

The Seattle Times also spoke with her parents, who live in Troy, Montana. They are both white and, while they lived it South Africa, it was only from 2002-2006 after Dolezal had already moved out and married. They have also shown the media her birth certificate to prove that they are her parents.

“It’s news to many people,” Lawrence told the Times. “It’s always been known to us. She was more or less assimilated into that society [African Americans], and that didn’t seem problematic. We supported her as she worked for liberty and justice for all. The only question we have, is, why did she feel it’s necessary to represent herself as African-American when she is clearly of European descent?”

Dolezal is the president of the Spokane NAACP and photos of her can be found all over the organization’s site and their Facebook page.