Lincoln Co. mom says daughter lied about being black

SPOKANE — Spokane NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal says she will speak about the furor over racial identity sparked after her parents said she has falsely portrayed herself as black for years.

KHQ-TV in Spokane reported that Dolezal sent a message to NAACP members saying she would address the situation at a Monday night meeting of the group.

“As you probably know by now, there are questions and assumptions swirling in national and global news about my family, my race, my credibility, and the NAACP,” Dolezal’s message said. “I have discussed the situation, including personal matters, with the Executive Committee.

“I support their decision to wait until Monday to make a statement. The Executive team asked that I also release my response statement at the same time, which will be during the 7-9 p.m. monthly membership meeting.”

Dolezal is a 37-year-old artist and activist with dark curly hair and light-brown skin. Her parents in Troy, Montana, have produced pictures of her as a blonde, blue-eyed child to prove that she is white. Her father is Larry Dolezal, who is a former Lincoln County Commissioner. Her mother is Ruthann Dolezal.

The city of Spokane is 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.

“My sons and I would appreciate your thoughts, prayers and support during the interlude,” Dolezal also said in her message.

The NAACP issued a statement Friday supporting Dolezal, who has been a longtime figure in Spokane’s human-rights community and teaches African studies to college students.

“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 has not returned several telephone messages left by The Associated Press, but her background has been intensively investigated by numerous media outlets.

An interview with Solezal conducted by Shawntelle Moncy at www.easterneronline.com was particularly revealing. The Easterner describes itself as “the independent, student-run news site of Eastern Washington University.

The Feb. 5 article contained a number of claims by Dolezal about her background that now appear to be exaggerations or entirely fictional. The author wrote that Dolezal was born in a Montana teepee and that, “according to Dolezal, ‘Jesus Christ’ is the witness on her birth certificate.”

According to Moncy’s article, Dolezal said, “Her mother believed in living off the land; they lived in the middle of nowhere. As a child, Dolezal and her family hunted their food with bows and arrows.”

In the interview, Solezal said she lived with her mother and her stepfather, although in fact her mother and father are still married. She said that she had moved with her family to South Africa, where she and her siblings were physically abused by her mother and her “stepfather.”

“The object her mother and stepfather used to punish them was called a baboon whip, used to ward baboons away in South Africa. These whips would leave scars behind,” Moncy wrote.

“They were pretty similar to what was used as whips during slavery,” she quoted Dolezal as saying.

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

“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.

The Spokesman-Review reported Saturday that the black man she claims is her father implied otherwise in a brief telephone interview. Albert Wilkerson Jr. said that he has “nothing negative to say about Rachel” and was reluctant to get involved in the controversy.

“I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus,” Wilkerson said. Asked about social media postings in which Dolezal identifies him as her father, Wilkerson replied: “You know the answer to that, and that’s all I’m going to say,” then hung up.

Dolezal’s mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, 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.

Her daughter dismissed the controversy, saying it arose from litigation between 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.

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.

Dolezal was appointed to the oversight board by Condon. She has filed numerous reports of racial harassment since 2009 with authorities in Spokane and nearby Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where she worked for the Human Rights Education Institute.

The region, which is overwhelmingly white, has a troubled history with race relations. Northern Idaho once served as a home base for the Aryan Nations.

Earlier this week, Spokane police released files into their investigation of Dolezal’s report that she received a hate mail package and other mailing in late February and March. The files said the initial package Dolezal reported receiving did not bear a date stamp or bar code.

Investigators interviewed postal workers, who said it was unlikely the package could have been processed through the post office.